OF  THE 
UNIVERSITY 

OF 

CALIFO 


WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION  IN  THEORY 
AND  PRACTICE 


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WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 
IN  THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 


LECTURES  DELIVERED  BEFORE  THE  FOREST 

SCHOOL  OF  YALE  UNIVERSITY 

1914 


BY 
WILLIAM   T.    HORN  AD  AY,    Sc.D. 

Author  of  "The  American  Natural  History" 
"Our  Vanishing  Wild  Life,"  etc.; 
Ex-President  of  the  Ameri- 
can Bison  Society 


WITH    A    CHAPTER    ON 

PRIVATE  GAME  PRESERVES 
BY  FREDERIC  C.  WALCOTT 


NEW  HAVEN:     YALE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

LONDON:     HUMPHREY  MILFORD 

OXFORD  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

MDCCCCXIV 


COPYRIGHT,  1914 

BY 
YALE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 


First  printed  November,  1914,  2000  copies 


PREFACE 

If  it  is  worth  while  to  preserve  the  wild  life  of 
our  country,  and  of  the  world  at  large,  then  it  is 
the  duty  of  the  university  educators  of  America  to 
take  up  their  share  of  the  white  man's  burden. 
The  training  of  a  grand  army  of  embryologists  and 
morphologists  is  all  very  well;  but  what  about 
saving  from  annihilation  the  species  that  our  zoolo- 
gists are  studying?  Which  is  the  more  important: 
the  saving  of  the  pinnated  grouse  from  extermina- 
tion, or  studying  the  embryology  of  a  clutch  of 
grouse  eggs? 

What  is  needed — and  now  demanded — of  pro- 
fessors and  teachers  in  all  our  universities,  colleges, 
normal  schools  and  high  schools  is  vigorous  and 
persistent  teaching  of  the  ways  and  means  that  can 
successfully  be  employed  in  the  wholesale  manu- 
facture of  public  sentiment  in  behalf  of  the  rational 
and  effective  protection  of  wild  life. 

Thus  far  the  educators  of  this  country  as  a  class 
and  a  mass  have  not  done  a  hundredth  part  of  their 
duty  toward  the  wild  life  of  the  United  States  and 
Alaska.  Let  him  who  doubts  this  very  sweeping 
statement  ask  the  next  young  university  or  college 
graduate  that  he  meets  how  much  he  has  learned  in 
his  university  about  the  practical  business  of  pro- 


897587 


vi  PREFACE 

tecting  wild  life.  Let  every  graduate  ask  himself 
how  much  he  has  learned  in  the  classroom  of  this 
highly  important  branch  of  zoological  work. 

The  course  of  lectures  now  published  in  this 
volume  represents  the  awakening  of  Yale  Univer- 
sity, through  the  efforts  of  Professor  James  W. 
Tourney,  Dean  of  the  Forestry  School.  The 
publication  of  this  volume  by  the  University  Press 
may  well  be  accepted  as  a  contribution  to  a  cause. 
It  is  hoped  by  those  who  have  made  possible  this 
lecture  course  and  this  volume  that  this  presenta- 
tion may  arouse  other  educators  in  our  great  insti- 
tutions of  learning  to  take  up  their  shares  of  the 
common  burden  of  conserving  our  wild  life  from 
the  destructive  forces  that  so  long  have  been  bear- 
ing very  heavily  upon  it.  It  is  not  right  that  this 
enormous  task  should  be  left  to  a  few  toilers — 
and  fighters — merely  because  they  have,  as  a  matter 
of  conscience,  dedicated  themselves  to  this  work. 

W.  T.  H. 

University  Heights, 

New  York  City,  August  15,  1914. 


CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Preface v 

Chapter    I.      The    Extinction    and    Preservation    of 

Valuable  Wild  Life 1 

Chapter    II.      The  Economic  Value  of  Our  Birds       .        44 

Chapter  III.      The  Legitimate   Use  of  Game  Birds 

and  Mammals 84 

Chapter  IV.      Animal    Pests    and    Their    Rational 

Treatment 123 

Chapter    V.      The  Duty  and  Power  of  the  Citizen  in 

Wild  Life  Protection  161 


FREDERIC  C.   WALCOTT 
Chapter  VI.      Private  Game  Preserves  as  Factors  in 

Conservation 195 

A  Bibliography  of  More  Recent  Works  on  Wild 
Birds,  with  Special  Reference  to  Game  Preserves 
and  the  Protection  and  Propagation  of  Game  . 


Index 


LIST   OF   ILLUSTRATIONS 

A  LESSON  IN  BIRD  PROTECTION Frontispiece 

Facing  Page 

THE  KIND  OF  DEER-HUNTING  THAT  MEANS  EXTERMINATION  28 
QUAIL  SLAUGHTER  IN  TEXAS,  ACCORDING  TO  LAW  .  .  56 
PTARMIGAN  SLAUGHTER  IN  THE  ABSENCE  OF  LAW  ...  80 

WILD-FOWL    EXTERMINATION    ACCORDING  TO   LAW,    BY 

"PUMP"   GUNS 98 

THE  WHITE-TAILED  DEER  AS  A  FOOD  SUPPLY  .  .  .  .  114 
ALASKA,  ANY  YEAR 164 

RESULT  OF  A  FEW  HOURS'  TROUT  FISHING  NEAR  SPOKANE, 

WASH.       .      .      . 188 

CHAPTER   VI. 
A  GROUP  OF  DEER Frontispiece 

Facing  Page 

FEEDING  THE  WILD  GEESE 198 

FIVE  O'CLOCK  P.  M 204 

WINTER  QUARTERS 208 

BY  THE  BROOK'S  EDGE 212 

THE  HOME  POND  218 


CHAPTER  I 

THE   EXTINCTION   AND   PRESERVATION   OF 
VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE 

The  industrial  development  of  the  United  States 
has  wrought  so  many  sweeping  changes  from  con- 
ditions of  the  past  that  the  American  people  now 
are  fairly  compelled  to  adjust  their  minds  in  con- 
formity with  the  new  conditions.  Forty  years  ago, 
the  preservation  of  wild  life  was  regarded  chiefly  as 
a  sentimental  cause,  of  practical  interest  to  sports- 
men only.  To-day,  that  cause  is  not  only  acutely 
sentimental,  but  it  has  also  become  intensely  prac- 
tical to  millions  of  American  producers  and  con- 
sumers. To-day  it  affects  the  lumber-pile,  the 
market-basket  and  the  dinner-pail,  and  is  of  such 
practical  importance  that  it  demands  the  attention 
of  the  public  at  large.  A  few  months  ago,  on  the 
floor  of  the  United  States  Senate,  Senator  Gallin- 
ger  declared  that  it  is  worthy  of  the  serious  atten- 
tion of  every  man  in  public  life.  It  is  because  of  our 
former  destructiveness  that  we  now  feel  the  lash  of 
necessity,  and  are  compelled  to  conserve,  whether 
we  will  or  not. 

We  will  endeavor  to  present  a  general  view  of 
the  present  status  of  the  wild  life  of  North  America, 


2  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

its  practical  value  to  us,  and  our  duty  toward  it. 
The  time  has  arrived  for  the  consideration  of  a 
number  of  important  practical  questions.  The 
amount  of  exact  zoological  knowledge  that  has  been 
accumulated  in  our  libraries  and  museums  is  enor- 
mous. A  vast  amount  of  that  knowledge  is  as  yet 
undigested,  and  much  of  it  seems  useless.  The 
academic  cabinet  naturalist  has  his  place  in  nature, 
but  the  need  of  the  hour  is  for  the  economic  zoolo- 
gist, who  can  help  the  producer  of  crops  and  the 
consumer  of  products  to  combat  the  insect  world 
and  reduce  the  appalling  cost  of  living.  On  this 
point  I  feel  so  strongly  that  perhaps  I  am  in  danger 
of  becoming  tiresomely  practical;  but  those  who 
look  most  deeply  into  our  annual  losses  in  cereal 
crops,  fruit,  forests  and  timber  will  appreciate  my 
point  of  view. 

We  will  endeavor  to  avoid  the  discussion  of  aca- 
demic questions,  because  the  business  of  conserva- 
tion is  replete  with  urgent  practical  demands.  It 
is  my  desire  to  offer  to  the  Yale  Forest  School  a 
foundation  on  which  may  be  erected  a  structure  of 
useful  knowledge  pertaining  to  the  extermination 
and  preservation  of  the  wild  life  of  North  America. 

To-day  it  is  the  way  of  the  world  to  expect  the 
man  who  has  been  educated  in  a  great  university  to 
be  an  encyclopaedia  of  information,  and  a  very 
present  help  in  time  of  trouble.  Especially  is  this 
the  case  in  matters  pertaining  to  conservation. 
Noblesse  oblige!  The  graduates  of  the  forestry 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  3 

schools  of  the  United  States  will  be  appealed  to, 
not  only  for  information  regarding  reforestation, 
and  the  insects  so  destructive  to  trees,  but  they  will 
also  be  called  upon  to  say  which  species  of  hawks 
and  owls  should  be  killed,  and  why;  whether  all 
skunks  have  hydrophobia,  and  how  the  gray  wolf 
population  may  really  be  reduced.  Even  yet, 
wherever  large  forests  remain,  there  will  some 
remnants  of  our  former  abundance  of  wild  life  be 
found.  This  being  the  case,  it  is  easily  concluded 
that  the  men  who  have  to  deal  with  our  forests 
should  entertain  toward  birds,  mammals,  reptiles 
and  fishes  a  degree  of  interest  and  sympathy  that 
will  be  manifested  in  practical  protection.  We  hold 
that  toward  our  remnant  of  wild  life,  every  forest 
ranger,  every  teacher  of  forestry  and  every  intelli- 
gent American  in  general,  has  a  solemn  duty  which 
no  conscientious  man  can  evade. 

The  Balance  of  Animate  Nature  is  a  subject  so 
well  understood  by  every  thoughtful  student  that 
it  is  unnecessary  to  dwell  upon  it  in  detail.  To  the 
field  naturalist,  and  the  explorer  who  visits  un- 
spoiled lands,  it  is  a  subject  full  of  entertainment 
and  delight.  In  our  boyhood  days,  that  is  to  say 
about  forty  years  ago,  when  birds  were  abundant 
all  over  the  United  States,  not  even  excepting  the 
arboreal  deserts,  the  birds  devoured  the  noxious 
insects,  the  hawks  and  owls  devoured  the  undesired 
increase  of  wild  rats  and  mice,  and  the  owls,  foxes 
and  lynxes  reduced  the  surplus  rabbits.  Any 


4  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

undesirable  increment  in  wild  life  was  promptly 
eaten  by  its  natural  enemies;  and  predatory  man, 
both  tame  and  wild,  kept  down  what  might  other- 
wise have  been  a  surplus  of  bears,  foxes,  lynxes  and 
other  carnivorous  animals  by  trapping  them  for 
their  fur. 

Forty  years  ago,  the  spraying  of  fruit-trees  and 
shade-trees  was  almost  unknown.  The  only  insect 
enemies  of  the  western  farmer  and  fruit-grower 
were  the  grasshopper,  tent-caterpillar,  the  potato- 
beetle,  and  at  long  intervals,  the  chinch-bug  of  the 
wheat-fields.  Even  after  the  advent  of  the  Colo- 
rado potato-beetle,  their  black  and  yellow  stripes 
were  so  attractive  to  the  rose-breasted  grosbeaks 
that  in  many  localities  there  were  not  enough  of  the 
beetles  to  supply  the  popular  demand. 

To-day,  the  farmers,  fruit-growers  and  foresters 
of  the  United  States  are  engaged  in  a  hand-to-hand 
struggle  with  great  armies  of  destroying  insects. 
It  seems  as  if  every  bush  and  tree,  and  every  vege- 
table, fruit  and  farm  crop  has  its  own  special  insect 
plague.  Between  $7,000,000  and  $8,000,000  are 
expended  annually,  and  in  one  sense  utterly  lost,  in 
spraying-machines,  poison  solutions  and  labor  in 
fighting  insect  pests. 

For  forty  years  we  have  been,  as  a  people,  crimi- 
nally destructive  of  valuable  wild  life.  Now  we  are 
paying  for  the  follies  of  the  past.  The  most  foolish 
of  all  men  is  he  who  needlessly  quarrels  with  a  good 
friend  or  destroys  a  valuable  ally.  Our  treatment 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  5 

of  our  feathered  friends,  right  down  to  the  present 
hour,  is  a  painful  subject;  but  we  must  face  our 
own  public  record  and  answer  to  the  charges 
against  us. 

Whenever  man  upsets  the  balance  of  nature, 
that  moment  he  begins,  in  one  form  or  another,  to 
suffer  for  it  and  to  pay.  When  the  foolish  farmers 
of  Pennsylvania  demanded  and  received  at  Harris- 
burg  a  law  placing  bounties  on  the  heads  of 
slaughtered  hawks  and  owls,  by  the  end  of  two  years 
those  farmers  found  their  fields  so  overrun  by  wild 
rats  and  mice  that  they  clamored  for  the  quick 
repeal  of  the  bounty  law.  Through  their  losses 
they  learned  to  appreciate  the  value  of  certain 
hawks  and  owls  as  destroyers  of  noxious  rodents. 

In  1908,  we  mentioned  the  fact  that  during  the 
previous  ten  years  the  woodpeckers  of  the  New 
York  Zoological  Park  had  decreased  about  90  per 
cent.  In  1912,  we  noted  with  sorrow  the  appear- 
ance of  the  terrible  hickory-bark  borer,  and  since 
that  time  fully  50  per  cent  of  our  hickory  trees  have 
been  destroyed  by  that  pest.  Possibly  these  two 
facts  are  unrelated;  but  to  me  their  coincidence  has 
a  sinister  aspect. 

It  is  unfortunate  that  while  so  many  observations 
have  been  made  on  the  anatomy  and  classification 
of  our  wild  creatures,  more  attention  has  not  been 
paid  to  their  habits  and  interrelations.  The  manner 
in  which  the  lives  and  habits  of  our  wild  allies  and 
foes  dovetail  together  is  too  little  known,  and  needs 


6  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

to  be  more  seriously  studied.  It  is  well  that  the 
entomologists  are  doing  their  utmost  to  find  para- 
sitic insects  that  may  prey  upon  the  insect  species 
that  are  so  destructive  to  forests  and  to  crops. 

The  appalling  destruction  of  wild  life  that  for 
forty  years  we  have  been  witnessing  on  every  hand 
is  chargeable  to  greed,  slothfulness  and  ignorance. 
The  same  low  order  of  intelligence  that  denuded 
China  of  her  forests,  and  turned  her  hillsides  into 
gullied  barrenness,  has  swept  away  fully  95  per 
cent  of  the  birds  and  mammals  of  America  that 
were  most  useful  to  man.  Had  the  game-birds  and 
game-quadrupeds  of  the  United  States  been  prop- 
erly and  conscientiously  conserved  from  the 
beginning  until  now,  the  wild  buffalo,  elk,  deer, 
turkey,  grouse  of  various  species,  ducks  and  geese 
would  to-day  be  yielding  to  us  each  year  $10,000,- 
000  worth  of  good  food  that  had  cost  only  half  a 
million  dollars  for  warden  services  to  manage  it  and 
protect  it  from  unlawful  killing. 

The  destruction  and  preservation  of  our  wild 
life  has  now  progressed  so  far  that  we  can  view  the 
future  with  the  lamp  of  experience.  With  the  past 
spread  out  before  us  like  a  map,  we  can  see  when 
and  wherein  we  have  erred,  and  we  can  also  measure 
the  practical  results  of  some  of  our  own  toil  in  the 
field  of  wild-life  conservation.  We  now  are  able, 
with  the  aid  of  a  little  logic,  to  draw  a  few  con- 
clusions so  correct  that  they  are  as  firmly  fixed  as 
the  foundations  of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Regard- 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  7 

ing  scores  of  matters  that  once  were  questions,  and 
therefore  debatable,  we  now  can  say  that  we  know! 
It  is  on  the  use  that  we  make  of  our  knowledge  of 
existing  facts  that  the  future  of  the  wild  life  of 
America  now  depends. 

Owing  to  the  sweeping  changes  that  have  come 
upon  our  wild  life  during  the  last  twenty  years,  the 
young  student  of  to-day  needs  to  be  told  something 
of  the  wild  life  of  the  past. 

Concerning  the  former  abundance  of  animal  life, 
a  knowledge  of  the  past  always  gives  hope  for  the 
future.  One  of  the  great  natural  wonders  of  the 
continent  of  North  America,  as  it  came  to  man 
from  the  hand  of  Nature,  was  the  marvelous  variety 
and  abundance  of  its  wild  life.  Abundance  is  the 
only  word  with  which  to  describe  the  original 
supply  of  animal  life  that  stocked  our  country  only 
a  short  half  century  ago.  Throughout  every  state, 
on  every  shore-line,  in  all  the  millions  of  fresh- water 
lakes,  ponds  and  rivers,  on  every  mountain  range, 
in  every  forest, — aye,  even  in  every  desert, — the 
wild  flocks  and  herds  held  sway.  It  was  impossible 
to  go  beyond  the  haunts  of  civilized  man  and  escape 
them. 

The  value  of  the  wild  life  of  North  America  is 
a  subject  by  itself,  which  gradually  will  be  devel- 
oped. In  order  to  become  successful  conservers  of 
the  remnant  of  that  wild  life,  it  is  indispensable 
that  we  should  know  in  brief  the  sad  story  of  its 
past.  Patrick  Henry  spoke  wisely  when  he  said, 


8  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

"I  know  no  way  of  judging  the  future  but  by  the 
past."  To-day  the  question  is,  Shall  we  sensibly 
apply  the  lessons  of  the  past  to  the  problems  of 
to-day? 

It  is  natural  for  man  to  believe  that  the  resources 
of  nature  are  inexhaustible.  The  wish  is  father  to 
the  thought.  The  theory  is  comforting,  because  it 
helps  to  salve  the  conscience  of  the  man  who  com- 
mits high  crimes  against  wild  beasts,  and  birds  and 
forests. 

In  the  days  of  buffalo  abundance,  the  Cree 
Indians  firmly  believed  that  the  buffalo  herds  issued 
from  a  great  cavern  in  the  earth,  and  that  the 
supply  was  quite  inexhaustible.  The  greedy  and 
merciless  white  buffalo-hunter  was  so  busy  with 
slaughter  that  he  never  troubled  himself  to  think 
about  the  source  of  the  buffalo  supply,  or  its  prob- 
able continuance.  He  said,  over  and  over,  "There 
will  always  be  plenty  of  buffalo!" 

And  yet,  four  years  of  slaughter,  in  the  early 
seventies,  wiped  out  the  millions  of  the  great 
southern  bison  herd;  and  just  ten  years  later 
another  four  years  of  hide-hunting  exterminated 
the  northern  herd.  Such  was  the  fate  of  the  most 
numerous,  the  most  conspicuous  and  most  valuable 
land  animal  of  North  America,  and  the  one  whose 
millions  were  rivaled  only  by  those  of  the  barren- 
ground  caribou. 

It  is  desirable  and  necessary  that  every  person 
living  should  know  that  systematic  slaughter  will 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  9 

exterminate  the  most  populous  wild  species  on 
earth,  and  accomplish  that  result  in  a  very  few 
years.  Let  it  be  remembered  for  all  time  that  no 
wild  species  of  mammal  or  bird  can  withstand 
systematic  slaughter  for  commercial  purposes. 

This  applies  to  all  wild  mammals  that  are  killed 
for  their  skins  or  their  oil,  all  birds  that  are  killed 
for  their  plumage  or  their  flesh,  and  all  game-fishes 
that  are  taken  for  sale.  The  ocean-going  food-fishes 
withstand  the  attacks  of  commerce  more  success- 
fully than  any  of  the  species  of  wild  life  that  inhabit 
the  land  or  the  small  bodies  of  water. 

As  a  foundation  for  an  exact  understanding  of 
the  status  of  wild  life  in  North  America,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  know  what  man  has  accomplished,  up  to 
date,  in  the  extermination  of  species.  Through  the 
history  of  the  past  we  can  judge  clearly  and  accu- 
rately what  man  can  do  in  the  future,  both  in  exter- 
minating and  in  preserving  the  remnant.  There 
are  occasions  when  a  refusal  to  heed  the  lessons  of 
the  past  becomes  a  crime.  If  it  is  a  crime  to  steal 
$25,  what  shall  we  say  of  the  extermination  of  a 
valuable  vertebrate  species  ? 

The  wanton  killing  of  the  humblest  individual 
member  of  the  human  race,  even  a  man  whose  vo- 
cabulary is  limited  to  two  hundred  words,  is  mur- 
der, punishable  by  the  severest  of  all  penalties.  We 
hold  that  there  are  circumstances  under  which  the 
killing  of  a  fine  wild  animal  may  be  so  wanton,  so 
revolting  and  so  utterly  reprehensible  that  it  may 


10  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

justly  be  classed  as  murder.  The  killing  of  an 
American  bison  for  a  tongue  to  sell  for  fifty  cents ; 
the  killing  of  a  fine  bull  elk  for  a  pair  of  misshapen 
and  ugly  teeth  worth  a  dollar;  the  killing  of  a 
walrus  "for  fun"  from  the  deck  of  a  swiftly  moving 
steamer;  the  killing  of  a  brown  pelican  merely  to 
see  it  fall, — all  these  are  crimes,  and  should  be 
classed  in  the  annals  of  crime  as  murder. 

The  murder  of  a  wild-animal  species  consists  in 
taking  from  it  that  which  man  with  all  his  cunning 
never  can  give  back, — its  God-given  place  in  the 
ranks  of  living  things.  Where  is  man's  boasted 
intelligence,  or  his  sense  of  proportion,  that  every 
man  does  not  see  the  monstrous  moral  obliquity 
involved  in  the  destruction  of  a  species  ? 

Man,  the  greedy  and  wasteful  spendthrift  that 
he  is,  has  not  created  even  the  humblest  of  the 
species  of  mammals,  birds  and  fishes  that  adorn  and 
enrich  this  earth.  With  all  his  wisdom,  and  with  all 
his  resources,  man  has  not  evolved  and  placed  here 
so  much  as  a  ground-squirrel,  a  sparrow  or  a  clam. 
It  is  true  that  he  has  juggled  with  the  wild  horse 
and  sheep,  the  goats  and  the  swine,  and  produced 
some  hardy  breeds  that  can  withstand  his  abuse 
without  going  down  before  it;  but  as  for  species, 
man  has  not  yet  created  and  placed  in  the  fauna  of 
this  world  so  much  as  a  protozoan. 

As  it  is  with  other  forms  of  murder,  there  are 
several  degrees  in  wild-life  extermination,  each  of 
which  should  be  understood. 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  11 

Local  extinction  means  the  complete  blotting  out 
of  a  species  over  certain  specified  areas,  while  the 
species  may  exist  elsewhere.  Thus,  in  the  state  of 
Ohio,  the  bison,  elk,  white-tailed  deer,  puma,  black 
bear,  gray  wolf,  lynx,  otter,  beaver,  wild  pigeon, 
wild  turkey,  pinnated  grouse,  pileated  woodpecker 
and  Carolina  parrakeet  all  are  locally  extinct. 
Throughout  fully  nine-tenths  of  its  entire  former 
range,  the  elk  has  been  locally  exterminated. 

The  practical  extinction  of  a  species  means  the 
destruction  of  its  members  to  an  extent  so  wide- 
spread and  so  thorough  that  the  species  disappears 
from  view,  and  no  living  specimens  can  be  found 
by  seeking  them.  In  the  United  States  this  is 
to-day  the  status  of  the  whooping  crane,  upland 
plover,  wolverine,  California  grizzly  bear  and  other 
species.  If  any  individuals  of  any  of  these  species 
are  living,  they  will  be  found  only  by  accident. 

The  extermination  of  a  species  in  a  wild  state  of 
course  means  that  no  individuals  of  that  species  are 
living  anywhere  save  in  captivity.  This  is  the  case 
with  David's  deer  of  Manchuria,  and  the  passenger 
pigeon  and  Carolina  parrakeet  of  North  America. 

The  absolute  extermination  of  a  species  means 
that  not  one  individual  of  it  remains  alive.  Judg- 
ment to  this  effect  is  based  upon  the  lapse  of  time 
since  the  last  individual  was  seen  or  killed.  When 
five  years  have  passed  without  a  living  "record"  of 
a  wild  specimen,  it  is  time  to  place  that  species  in 
the  class  of  the  totally  extinct. 


12  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

To-day  the  results  of  man's  efforts  to  exter- 
minate all  the  most  valuable  vertebrate  life  of  the 
North  American  continent  reveal  various  stages  of 
progress.  Eleven  species  have  been  totally  exter- 
minated in  their  wild  state,  and  of  those  all  save 
two,  the  parrakeet  and  passenger  pigeon,  are 
wholly  extinct.  The  list  is  as  follows: 

Great  auk, 
Labrador  duck, 
Pallas  cormorant, 
Passenger  pigeon, 
Eskimo  curlew, 
Carolina  parrakeet, 
Cuban  tricolor  macaw, 
Gosse's  macaw, 
Yellow-winged  green  parrot, 
Purple  Guadaloupe  macaw. 

All  the  above  became  totally  extinct  in  a  wild 
state  between  1840  and  1910. 

One  other  species,  the  heath-hen  or  eastern  pin- 
nated grouse,  the  counterpart  of  the  western 
prairie-chicken,  has  escaped  total  extinction  only 
by  a  very  narrow  margin.  It  is  so  thoroughly 
extinct  locally  that  to-day  it  exists  only  in  one 
locality,  on  Martha's  Vineyard,  in  eastern  Massa- 
chusetts, where  about  two  hundred  birds  are  main- 
tained under  rigid  protection. 

The  history  of  the  heath-hen  teaches  a  practical 
lesson  that  should  be  of  great  value  to  the  grouse 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  13 

and  other  game-birds  of  to-day,  if  the  men  of  to-day 
only  will  heed  it.  It  is  a  lesson  on  the  folly  of 
waiting  too  long  before  giving  permanent  protec- 
tion! This  bird  formerly  inhabited  Massachusetts, 
Rhode  Island,  Connecticut,  New  York,  New 
Jersey  and  Pennsylvania.  It  was  the  first  Ameri- 
can game-bird  to  be  brought  to  the  point  of 
extermination  by  sportsmen. 

When  its  numbers  were  alarmingly  depleted,  and 
attention  was  strongly  called  to  its  impending  fate, 
in  the  hope  of  restoring  it  New  York,  New  Jer- 
sey and  Massachusetts  bestirred  themselves,  and 
enacted  for  the  heath-hen  protective  laws  giving  it 
close  seasons  of  five  years.  At  the  end  of  that 
period,  it  was  found  that  the  species  had  not  per- 
ceptibly recovered;  so  New  Jersey  and  New  York 
gave  it  close  seasons  of  ten  years. 

But  it  was  too  late!  The  unfortunate  heath-hen 
completely  disappeared,  everywhere  save  on 
Martha's  Vineyard. 

The  logical  conclusion  of  this  episode  in  exter- 
mination is  of  very  great  importance  to  the  sports- 
men of  to-day  who  heedlessly  go  on  shooting  van- 
ishing species  of  birds,  in  the  belief  that  such  species 
can  at  any  time  be  saved  and  brought  back  by  the 
application  of  long-close-season  laws.  In  some 
cases,  the  ten-year  close  season  possibly  can  bring 
back  the  candidates  for  oblivion;  and  it  is  well  for 
us  that  this  is  true.  With  every  vanishing  bird 
species,  however,  very  soon  a  point  is  reached 


14  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

beyond  which  it  can  not  recover  and  come  back. 
When  birds  are  few  and  widely  scattered,  their 
natural  enemies  easily  prevent  their  increase;  and 
from  that  point  the  tendency  is  downward,  until 
extinction  is  reached. 

In  1913,  after  persistent  entreaties  and  far  too 
long  delay,  the  state  of  New  York  accorded  her 
miserable  remnant  of  quail  a  five-year  close  season. 
Now  the  question  is,  Has  the  species  reached  so 
low  a  condition  that  its  natural  enemies  and  winter's 
severities  will  be  able  to  prevent  its  recovery,  as 
happened  with  the  heath-hen?  The  friends  of  the 
quail  hope  that  the  relief  from  persecution  has  not 
come  too  late;  but  it  is  extremely  probable  that  in 
many  localities  of  New  York  the  much-beloved 
and  exceedingly  beneficial  bob-white  is  extinct 
forever. 

Let  the  college  men  of  America  carry  this  mes- 
sage to  every  American  sportsman  and  lawmaker 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land. 
Say  to  them:  "Beware!  A  point  can  be  reached 
by  a  vanishing  species  beyond  which  it  can  not 
recover,  and  long  close  seasons  are  in  vain.  Do 
not  delay  until  that  fatal  point  has  been  passed. 
Restocking  barren  covers  by  importing  quail  is  a 
delusion  and  a  snare.  The  Hungarian  partridge 
is  a  failure,  and  it  can  not  be  made  to  take  the  place 
of  our  own  grouse  and  quail.  Give  every  en- 
dangered species  a  five-year  close  season.  Do  it  at 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  15 

once;  and  when  that  limit  has  expired,  give  it 
another." 

Wherever  killable  wild  life  is  found,  greed  and 
ignorance  are  quite  as  deadly  as  shot-guns.  At  this 
moment,  the  gunners  and  sportsmen  of  Nebraska, 
Oklahoma,  Iowa  and  Minnesota  diligently  and 
even  joyously  exercise  the  right  that  their  state 
lawmakers  still  foolishly  extend  them  to  hunt  and 
kill  the  pinnated  grouse.  In  those  states  the  man- 
with-a-gun  is  deaf  to  the  appeal  to  reason,  blind  to 
the  lessons  of  history.  If  the  law  continues  its  per- 
mission, those  gunners  very  soon  will  shoot  down 
the  last  pinnated  grouse.  Yes ;  very  earnest  efforts 
have  been  made  to  awaken  those  sodden  people,  but 
thus  far  in  vain.  In  view  of  the  army  of  gunners, 
the  uncountable  thousands  of  guns,  the  dogs, 
wagons,  automobiles,  tents  and  other  munitions  of 
war  that  annually  take  the  field  against  the  prairie- 
chicken  remnant,  every  observer  is  compelled  to 
believe  that  without  a  quick  and  sweeping  reform, 
the  end  of  the  species  is  in  sight. 

At  the  same  time  other  species,  elsewhere,  are 
similarly  threatened.  Consider  the  sage-grouse 
and  the  sharp-tailed  grouse  of  the  northwestern 
quarter  of  our  great  plains ;  the  wild  turkey  in  half 
a  dozen  states ;  the  quail  in  a  dozen  states ;  the  shore- 
birds  of  every  species;  the  sandhill  and  whooping 
cranes;  the  swan;  the  ptarmigan;  the  mule  deer  in 
several  states;  the  mountain  sheep  in  Wyoming, 
Montana,  Idaho  and  Washington. 


16  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

The  lists  of  species  of  birds  and  mammals  that 
already  have  been  locally  exterminated  in  the  vari- 
ous states  of  our  country  make  in  the  aggregate  an 
appalling  showing.  We  do  not  need  to  grieve  over 
the  species  that  because  of  their  size  and  habits 
were  foredoomed  to  disappear  before  the  thick 
settlements  and  fierce  progress  of  civilization;  but 
we  are  unreconciled  to  the  needless  extinction  of 
species  that  could  and  would  have  survived  had  they 
been  conserved  on  a  sensible  basis,  and  that  could 
and  would  have  yielded  an  annual  increase  of  great 
value  to  man. 

At  this  moment,  in  addition  to  the  eleven  species 
of  birds  already  totally  exterminated  on  our  con- 
tinent, there  are  at  least  twenty-five  others  that  are 
prominent  candidates  for  oblivion.  Several  of 
these  have  already  been  mentioned.  The  groups 
that  are  in  greatest  peril  are  the  shore-birds  (sixty 
species)  and  the  grouse.  Fortunately,  all  of  the 
former  save  six  species  recently  (October  1,  1913) 
have  come  under  the  protection  of  the  federal 
migratory  bird  law.  Unfortunately,  however,  none 
of  the  members  of  the  grouse  family  are  so  pro- 
tected, and  it  is  among  them  that  serious  fatalities 
are  impending. 

Prior  to  October  1, 1913,  there  was  another  phase 
of  bird  destruction  that  gave  the  conservators  of 
wild  life  very  great  concern.  It  was  the  destruction 
of  insectivorous  birds  of  many  species  by  the 
Italians  of  the  North  and  the  negroes  of  the  South, 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  17 

and  in  some  localities  by  white  men  calling 
themselves  sportsmen  but  lacking  anything  even 
remotely  resembling  a  code  of  ethics  in  shooting. 

Although  in  general  it  is  our  duty  to  let  bygones 
be  bygones,  and  not  rake  up  the  disagreeable 
embers  of  the  past,  we  are  not  yet  so  far  on  the 
road  to  reform  that  we  need  ignore  the  things  of 
yesterday.  The  martins,  swallows,  nighthawks, 
robins  and  bobolinks  that  have  been  shot  in  the 
South  by  sportsmen  as  "game"  and  for  "food,"  and 
the  doves  that  have  been  slaughtered  all  the  way 
from  the  Carolinas  to  California,  still  cry  out  for 
protection  for  the  remnant. 

A  little  later  we  will  consider  more  fully  the  rela- 
tions of  birds  and  mammals  to  agriculture,  horti- 
culture and  forestry.  This  subject  is  of  vast 
importance  to  our  country,  and  in  view  of  the 
extent  to  which  it  already  is  understood  by  the  most 
intelligent  of  our  American  farmers,  it  is  strange 
that  the  logic  of  the  situation  has  not  produced 
more  thorough  and  universal  protection  for  the 
farmers'  feathered  friends  and  allies. 

In  order  to  lay  a  foundation  for  a  comprehensive 
knowledge  of  the  subject  before  us,  it  is  impera- 
tively necessary  that  the  forces  operating  for  the 
extermination  of  wild  life  should  be  thoroughly 
known. 

To-day  this  country  of  ours  is  the  theater  of  a 
remarkable  struggle  between  the  great  forces  of 
destruction  and  the  small  forces  of  protection  and 


18  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

preservation.  In  every  township  throughout  the 
whole  United  States  the  destroyers  of  wild  life 
either  are  active  in  slaughter  or  are  ready  to  become 
active  the  moment  they  are  left  free  to  do  so. 
Every  beast,  bird,  fish  and  creeping  thing  has  its 
human  enemy.  Americans  are  notoriously  enter- 
prising, restless  and  prone  to  venture.  It  is  that 
restless  activity  and  indomitable  nervous  energy 
that  is  manfully  attempting  "dry-farming"  in  the 
West,  desert-farming  in  the  Southwest,  and  the 
drainage  of  the  Florida  Everglades.  Often  the  joy 
of  the  conquest  of  nature  outruns  the  love  of  cash 
returns.  Apply  that  spirit  to  forests,  and  it  quickly 
becomes  devastation.  Apply  it  to  wild  life,  and  it 
quickly  becomes  extermination. 

Our  conquering  and  pulverizing  national  spirit  is 
a  curse  to  all  our  wild  life.  The  native  of  India 
permits  the  black  buck,  the  sand  grouse  and  the 
saras  crane  to  roam  over  his  fields  unmolested  for 
two  thousand  years.  The  American,  and  the  Eng- 
lishman also,  at  once  proceeds  to  shoot  all  of  that 
wild  life  that  he  can  approach  within  range.  In 
America,  the  national  spirit  may  truthfully  be  ex- 
pressed in  the  cry  of  the  crazed  Malay:  "Amok! 
Amok!"  "Kill!  Kill!"  This  is  why  the  conserva- 
tion of  valuable  wild  life  is  in  our  country  a  fear- 
fully difficult  task,  from  which  most  people  shrink 
and  seek  something  either  more  pleasant  or  per- 
sonally profitable. 

It  may  be  accepted  as  absolutely  certain  that  if 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  19 

the  forces  that  now  protect  wild  life  were  with- 
drawn from  the  field,  and  the  destroyers  were  per- 
mitted to  go  their  way  unchecked,  in  ten  years' 
time  the  whole  United  States  would  be  as  barren  of 
valuable  and  desirable  wild  life  as  is  Italy  to-day. 
Imagine  the  carnival  of  slaughter  that  would  ensue ! 

Although  the  remnant  of  game  birds  and  quad- 
rupeds now  alive  in  the  United  States  represents 
only  about  2  per  cent  of  the  stock  that  existed  here 
only  fifty  years  ago,  that  remnant  is  sufficient  to 
cause  the  sale  each  year,  in  this  country,  of  nearly 
half  a  million  shot-guns,  and  about  500,000,000 
cartridges.  We  are  not  taking  into  this  account  the 
additional  400,000,000  cartridges  that  are  used 
annually  in  trap-shooting. 

The  army  of  destruction  that  annually  takes  the 
field  against  wild  life,  openly  and  according  to  law, 
contains  at  least  2,642,194  men  and  boys.  Through 
a  little  investigation  we  found  in  1911  that  twenty- 
seven  of  our  states  issued  hunting  licenses,  and  that 
the  total  number  actually  issued  for  that  year  was 
1,486,228,  or  an  average  of  55,046  for  each  state.1 

The  twenty-one  states  not  issuing  hunting 
licenses,  or  not  reporting,  undoubtedly  sent  as 
many  hunters  per  capita  into  the  field  in  1911  as 
did  the  other  states.  Computed  fairly  on  existing 
averages,  those  twenty-one  states  were  undoubtedly 

i  In  1912,  when  Pennsylvania  enacted  a  license  law  covering  the 
hunting  privilege,  it  was  estimated  that  200,000  hunting  licenses 
would  be  issued  each  year.  In  1913  the  actual  number  proved  to  be 
nearly  300,000! 


20  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

responsible  for  1,155,966  men  and  boys  hunting  in 
1911  according  to  law,  making  up  the  grand  total 
of  more  than  2,600,000  previously  mentioned. 

To  this  vast  body  we  must  add  another  grand 
army  of  gunners,  believed  to  be  equally  large,  hunt- 
ing contrary  to  law  and  without  licenses,  and  killing 
wild  creatures,  game  and  non-game,  in  season  and 
out  of  season,  to  an  extent  of  slaughter  fully  as 
great  as  that  perpetrated  by  the  licensed  hunters. 

Now  for  an  illustration  of  the  practical  effect  of 
our  grotesque  and  absurd  national  system  of  game 
protection. 

The  state  of  Utah  is,  with  the  exception  of  its 
irrigated  lands,  a  desert  state.  Its  stock  of  game, 
excepting  the  migratory  ducks  of  Great  Salt  Lake, 
is  at  a  very  low  point.  The  population  of  the  state 
is  only  373,351,  but  in  1911  that  state  sent  an  army 
of  27,800  well-armed  men  into  the  field  against  her 
pitiful  remnant  of  game  birds  and  quadrupeds. 
And  this  sort  of  thing  the  people  of  America  call 
"game  protection"! 

In  addition  to  the  hunters  themselves  who  annu- 
ally take  the  field,  they  are  assisted  by  thousands 
of  expert  guides,  thousands  of  well-trained  dogs, 
thousands  of  horses,  thousands  of  wagons  and 
automobiles,  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  tents. 
Each  big-game  hunter  provides  himself  with  an 
experienced  local  guide  who  knows  the  haunts  and 
habits  of  the  game,  the  best  feeding-grounds,  the 
best  trails,  and  everything  else  that  will  aid  the 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  21 

hunter  in  taking  the  game  at  the  utmost  disadvan- 
tage and  destroying  it  most  thoroughly.  The  big- 
game  rifles  are  of  the  highest  power,  the  longest 
range  and  the  greatest  rapidity  of  fire  that  modern 
inventive  genius  and  mechanical  skill  can  produce. 

Every  appliance  and  assistance  that  money  can 
buy,  the  modern  sportsman  and  gunner  diligently 
secures  to  help  him  in  destroying  his  chosen  game. 
The  deadliness  of  the  automobile  in  hunting  is 
already  so  well  recognized  that  North  Dakota  has 
enacted  a  law  forbidding  its  use  against  the  game 
of  that  state.  The  superior  deadliness  of  the  auto- 
matic and  pump  shot-guns  is  thoroughly  and 
widely  acknowledged  by  the  popularity  of  those 
weapons  with  the  men  who  wish  to  kill  all  that  the 
law  allows.  Look  carefully  at  the  published  photo- 
graphs of  game-hogs  and  their  masses  of  slaugh- 
tered ducks,  geese,  quail  and  other  birds,  and  in 
about  nine  out  of  every  ten  of  them  you  will  find  the 
automatic  shot-gun  or  the  pump-gun,  or  both. 

The  grand  army  of  men  and  boys  who  hunt 
according  to  law  assails  the  game  during  the  annual 
open  season.  The  poachers  and  the  resident 
hunters  kill  it  all  the  year  round,  and  rarely  are  any 
of  them  caught  and  convicted.  I  am  convinced  that 
this  class  of  killers  is  doing  far  more  toward  the 
extinction  of  species  than  is  done  by  sportsmen. 
It  is  the  market-gunner,  however,  who  is  most 
deadly  of  all.  He  works  early  and  late,  at  least  six 
days  a  week,  and  the  game  he  seeks  knows  no 


22  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

respite.  His  skill  in  shooting  is  fatal  to  the  game, 
and  wherever  market-hunting  is  permitted,  its  final 
result  is  the  extermination  of  the  game  in  the 
locality  affected. 

During  its  breeding  season  the  game  is  beset  by 
its  natural  enemies — foxes,  cats,  hawks,  owls, 
wolves,  lynxes  and  other  predatory  species;  and  to 
this  must  be  added  the  cold  and  starvation  of  extra- 
severe  winters. 

The  bag  limits,  on  which  vast  reliance  has  been 
placed  to  preserve  our  game  from  extinction,  are  a 
fraud,  a  delusion  and  a  snare!  The  few  local 
exceptions  only  prove  the  generality  of  the  rule. 
In  every  state,  without  one  single  exception,  the 
bag  limits  are  far  too  high,  and  the  laws  are  of 
deadly  liberality.  I  think  that  in  most  states  the 
bag-limit  laws  on  birds  are  an  absolute  dead  letter. 
Fancy  ninety- five  wardens  in  the  state  of  New  York 
enforcing  the  bag-limit  laws  on  150,000  licensed 
gunners !  In  British  East  Africa,  for  a  license  cost- 
ing $250,  you  receive  a  lawful  right  to  kill  three 
hundred  head  of  big  game,  representing  forty- four 
species, — almost  enough  to  load  a  ship. 

From  1885  to  1900,  the  agents  of  the  millinery 
trade  wrought  great  destruction  among  the  birds  of 
North  America.  In  the  beginning  of  the  craze  for 
stuffed  birds  and  wild  birds'  plumage  on  women's 
hats,  all  kinds  of  bright-colored  song-birds,  terns, 
gulls,  herons,  egrets,  spoonbills,  ibises  and  the 
flamingo  were  used.  The  small  birds  were  mounted 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  23 

entire,  and  the  larger  species  were  used  piecemeal. 
The  slaughter  for  millinery  purposes  called  forth, 
as  the  special  champion  of  birds,  the  Audubon 
Societies,  state  and  national.  Their  first  work  con- 
sisted in  prohibiting  the  use  of  song-birds,  and  in 
stopping  the  killing  of  gulls  and  terns.  The  Audu- 
bon people  stepped  in  at  a  time  when  a  furious  and 
bloody  general  slaughter  of  our  gulls  and  terns 
was  in  progress,  and  they  literally  brought  back  to 
us  those  interesting  and  pleasing  species.  But  for 
their  efforts,  there  would  to-day  be  only  the  merest 
trace  of  the  long-winged  swimmers  along  our 
Atlantic  coast. 

In  the  South,  no  power  proved  sufficient  to  save 
the  unfortunate  egrets  and  herons,  the  ibises,  spoon- 
bills and  flamingo.  The  flamingo  is  totally  extinct 
throughout  the  United  States,  and  of  the  other 
species,  nothing  more  than  sample  specimens  re- 
main. Of  the  white  egrets,  there  are  about  twenty 
small  colonies,  each  one  protected  from  the  rapa- 
cious plume-hunters  by  Audubon  Society  wardens 
or  by  the  national  government. 

But  the  destroyers  of  wild  life  have  not  been  per- 
mitted to  have  everything  their  own  way.  To-day 
their  progress  is  contested  by  an  army  of  defenders, 
which,  in  the  greatest  battles  that  have  been  fought 
in  our  country,  have  been  completely  victorious. 
Enough  victories  have  been  won  to  demonstrate  the 
fact  that  it  is  possible  to  save  the  remnant  of  wild 
life,  and  increase  it. 


24  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

The  defenders  of  wild  life  have  accomplished 
results  along  the  following  lines : 

1.  Seventy  per  cent  of  the  killing  of  non-game- 
birds  has  been  stopped. 

2.  The  killing  of  game  has  been  restricted  to 
open    seasons,    which    have    steadily    been    made 
shorter. 

3.  Long  close  seasons,  usually  for  five  years, 
have  been  extended  to  a  very  few  species  threatened 
with  local  extinction. 

4.  The  sale  of  game  has  been  prohibited  in 
seventeen  states. 

5.  They  have  achieved  the  complete  suppres- 
sion of  the  importation  of  wild  birds'  plumage  for 
millinery,  and  the  equally  complete  suppression  of 
the  use  of  native  birds  as  hat  ornaments. 

6.  They  have  brought  about  the  creation  of  a 
really  great  number  of  national  and  state  game- 
preserves  and  bird  refuges. 

7.  There  has  been  a  partial  suppression  of  the 
use  of  extra-deadly  firearms  in  killing  birds. 

8.  Finally,  the  army  of  defense  has  secured  the 
enactment  of  a  law  placing  all  our  610  species  of 
migratory  birds  under  the  protection  of  the  federal 
government. 

Of  all  these  protective  and  restrictive  measures, 
the  one  of  greatest  importance  to  the  orchards  and 
forests  of  our  country  is  the  law  for  the  federal  pro- 
tection of  migratory  birds,  named  in  honor  of 
Senator  George  P.  McLean  of  Connecticut,  who 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  25 

introduced  and  successfully  advocated  in  the  Sen- 
ate the  measure  that  finally  was  enacted  into  law. 
This  measure  was  championed  in  and  through  the 
House  of  Representatives  by  Mr.  John  W. 
Weeks  of  Massachusetts,  now  a  senator. 

There  is  one  item  of  history  connected  with  that 
measure  which  forcibly  illustrates  the  state  of  pub- 
lic feeling  regarding  the  birds  that  are  of  practical 
value  to  trees  and  crops.  All  of  six  years  ago,  a 
bill  was  introduced  in  Congress  for  the  federal 
protection  of  migratory  game-birds.  It  was  ably 
championed  by  its  author,  Mr.  George  Shiras,  3d, 
but  in  five  years  it  made  no  progress.  Subsequent 
bills  of  the  same  character  were  introduced  by  other 
members  of  Congress,  but  so  long  as  they  provided 
for  the  game-birds  only,  there  was  no  great  public 
demand  for  their  passage,  and  they  slumbered 
peacefully  in  the  committees  to  which  they  had  been 
referred. 

Finally,  in  1912,  the  insectivorous  birds  were 
made  the  leading  issue  of  a  great  national  campaign 
that  was  waged  in  behalf  of  the  amended  McLean 
bill.  On  that  issue  the  support  of  the  press  and  the 
people  at  large  was  actively  enlisted,  and  in  spite 
of  some  doubts  regarding  its  constitutionality,  and 
its  possible  infringement  of  the  rights  of  states,  the 
measure  passed  the  Senate  without  one  dissenting 
vote.  Later  on  it  passed  the  House  opposed  by 
only  fifteen  votes.  To  insure  action  upon  it,  the 
measure  finally  was  incorporated  in  the  Agricul- 


26  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

tural  Appropriation  Bill,  and  so  riding  it  became 
a  law. 

Stated  most  briefly,  the  new  law  provides  that 
the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  shall  frame  regula- 
tions for  the  protection,  by  the  national  govern- 
ment, of  all  the  birds  of  the  United  States  that  do 
not  abide  continuously  in  any  one  locality,  but  pass 
from  state  to  state.  The  regulations  first  proposed 
by  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture  were  published 
three  months  in  advance  of  their  becoming  effective 
and  during  that  period  all  persons  interested  were 
at  liberty  to  be  heard  upon  them,  either  in  objection 
or  in  approval.  At  the  end  of  three  months,  by  a 
presidential  proclamation  which  was  issued  on 
October  1,  1913,  the  final  draft  of  the  regulations 
became  a  federal  law. 

The  federal  migratory  bird  law  as  now  in  force 
is  the  most  potent  and  far-reaching  measure  ever 
enacted  for  the  protection  of  our  native  birds,  and 
any  occurrence  that  would  impair  or  destroy  its 
usefulness  would  be  a  national  and  continental 
calamity.  Its  most  important  features  are  the 
following : 

1.  It  stops  all  spring  shooting  of  migratory 
birds. 

2.  It   will   stop   the   slaughter   of   song-birds, 
swallows,  the  migratory  woodpeckers  and  other 
insectivorous  birds. 

3.  It  confers  a  five-year  close  season  on  all  save 
six  of  our  sixty  species  of  shore-birds. 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  27 

4.  It  shortens  the  northern  season  on  water- 
fowl to  about  three  months — a  period  quite  long 
enough. 

5.  It  renders  the  protection  of  the  wood-duck 
universal. 

The  federal  bill  divides  the  United  States  into 
two  life-zones,  with  differences  between  the  two,  in 
the  regulations,  which  now  are  causing  some  local 
irritation;  but  this  state  of  feeling  will  subside  as 
soon  as  the  aggrieved  ones  can  be  made  to  under- 
stand that  at  present  the  regulations  represent  the 
best  wisdom  and  the  best  efforts  of  the  Govern- 
ment, pending  an  actual  trial  of  the  principles 
involved. 

As  in  times  past  when  "the  prayers  of  the 
church"  were  invoked  in  behalf  of  persons  in  peril 
or  distress,  so  do  we  now  need  to  invoke  the  sym- 
pathy and  sustaining  influence  of  the  American 
people  at  large  in  behalf  of  both  the  federal  migra- 
tory bird  law  and  the  international  treaty  now  being 
negotiated  with  Canada  for  the  protection  of  the 
migratory  birds  of  the  continent.  The  law  is 
necessary  because  of  the  utter  inability  of  more 
than  one-half  of  our  states  to  protect  their  migra- 
tory birds  by  state  laws.  For  twenty  years,  at 
least,  fifteen  states  have  sullenly  refused  to  heed  the 
demands  made  in  behalf  of  the  common  welfare. 
The  states  of  Maryland,  Virginia,  the  two  Caro- 
linas,  Georgia,  Arkansas,  Texas,  Tennessee,  Ken- 
tucky, and  until  1913  California  also,  have  one  and 


28  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

all  been  deplorably  remiss  in  their  treatment  of  bird 
life,  and  grossly  unfair  to  the  states  northward  of 
them.  For  example,  Iowa  had  most  obstinately 
and  selfishly  refused  to  enact  a  law  against  spring 
shooting,  even  after  a  great  number  of  other  states 
had  done  so.  Now  the  federal  law  has  terminated 
that  irritating  situation, — as  we  believe,  forever. 

A  state  or  a  nation  can  be  uncivil,  ungentle- 
manly  or  mean,  just  the  same  as  an  individual. 
The  new  bird  law  "shines  like  a  good  deed  in  a 
naughty  world,"  because  it  puts  the  screws  of  com- 
pulsion upon  a  number  of  mean  and  greedy  states 
that  toward  wild  life  have  manifested  little  sense  of 
honor  or  of  decency.  Those  who  have  labored 
longest  in  the  vineyard  of  protection  rejoice  that 
they  have  lived  to  see  the  day  when  states  like 
Maryland,  the  Carolinas  and  Iowa  will  be  forced  to 
give  the  migratory  birds  of  the  United  States  and 
Canada  a  square  deal. 

From  the  very  first  inception  of  the  idea  of  a 
federal  law  for  the  benefit  of  the  migratory  birds, 
its  friends  have  feared  that  it  would  be  attacked  by 
the  professional  champions  of  the  states'  rights 
fetich,  as  an  infringement  on  the  prerogatives  of 
the  so-called  "sovereign  states."  It  was  particu- 
larly feared  that  on  this  ancient  ground  much  oppo- 
sition to  the  bill  would  come  from  the  southern 
states. 

To  the  everlasting  credit  of  all  the  southern 
states  let  it  be  stated,  that  up  to  this  hour  no  south- 


*  I 

H 


I 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  29 

ern  man  or  body  of  men  has  raised  this  question! 
On  the  contrary,  much  of  the  enthusiastic  support 
of  "the  McLean  bill"  and  "the  Weeks  bill"  came 
from  southern  protectors  of  wild  life,  particularly 
from  Alabama,  Tennessee  and  Texas.  So  far  as  the 
southern  states  are  concerned,  the  old  southern 
states'  rights  bogey  seems  to  be  dead,  and  we  have 
no  fear  that  an  attack  on  the  new  bird  law  ever  will 
be  made  by  southern  men. 

But  how  is  it  in  the  North? 

Time  brings  many  changes,  some  of  them  both 
startling  and  absurd.  In  the  Fifth  National  Con- 
servation Congress,  held  at  Washington  in  1913, 
the  main  assault  on  the  principle  of  federal  control 
of  water-power  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  of  the 
nation  at  large,  was  led  by  the  representatives  of 
northern  states,  who  set  up  a  loud  demand  for  state 
control,  and  state  rights! 

The  state  of  New  York  refused  to  join  in  that 
demand,  but  later  on,  the  people  of  that  common- 
wealth were  treated  to  a  surprise  all  their  own.  In 
reply  to  an  inquiry  from  the  New  York  State  Con- 
servation Commission  regarding  the  status  of  cer- 
tain trivial  differences  between  the  federal  bird  law 
and  the  New  York  state  bird  laws,  Attorney- 
General  Carmody  propounded  and  published  an 
official  opinion  to  the  effect  that  the  federal  migra- 
tory bird  law  is  unconstitutional,  and  therefore  void 
and  of  no  effect  in  New  York  state.  Later  on,  he 


30  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

announced  that  he  would  insist  upon  the  enforce- 
ment of  his  opinion  throughout  the  state. 

The  only  serious  effect  of  the  attorney-general's 
opinion  was  that  its  publication  in  a  great  many 
newspapers,  with  the  startling  head-line  "Federal 
Bird  Law  Declared  Unconstitutional''  gave  many 
timid  persons  a  momentary  scare,  and  an  impres- 
sion that  the  law  really  may  be  unconstitutional. 

The  champions  of  the  bird  law  lost  not  a  moment 
in  challenging  the  soundness  of  the  opinion,  and  in 
pointing  out  that  a  street-car  conductor  or  a  barber 
can  as  easily  nullify  a  federal  law  by  pronuncia- 
mento  as  can  any  state  attorney-general.  Their 
claim  that  the  attorney-general's  opinion  was 
purely  academic,  so  far  as  the  enforcement  of  the 
federal  law  is  concerned,  was  quickly  substantiated 
by  a  statement  from  an  assistant  attorney-general 
for  the  United  States,  Mr.  Kroetel,  who  informed 
the  people  of  New  York  that  the  migratory  bird 
law  is  in  full  force  in  that  state,  and  its  enforcement 
by  the  national  government  will  assuredly  continue. 
Although  scores  of  newspapers  between  Chicago 
and  Boston  have  commented  editorially  on  this 
comedy  of  much  ado  about  nothing,  only  one  has 
supported  the  position  assumed  by  our  attorney- 
general,  while  all  the  others  have  severely  con- 
demned it.  The  law  is  in  full  force  in  New  York 
state,  and  it  will  be  enforced  down  to  the  utmost 
detail,  until  it  is  either  repealed  by  Congress,  or  set 
aside  by  the  United  States  Supreme  Court, — 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  31 

neither  of  which  is  at  all  likely  ever  to  occur.  At 
least  twenty-five  competent  lawyers  carefully 
studied  the  McLean  bill  before  it  became  a  law,  and 
became  convinced  that  what  it  proposed  would  be 
entirely  constitutional. 

We  mention  this  case  in  some  detail  for  two  rea- 
sons. The  first  is  to  make  it  clear  that  the  absurd 
performance  of  New  York's  chief  law  officer  has 
not  even  made  a  dent  in  the  armor  of  the  McLean 
law,  and  that  the  law  is  everywhere  an  existing  fact, 
pending  action  by  a  federal  court  of  last  resort.1 

The  second  reason  is  to  point  out  the  fact  that 
the  friends  and  champions  of  wild  life  must  be  con- 
stantly on  the  alert  and  ready  to  fight,  and  some- 
times must  undertake  the  painful  duty  of  chastis- 
ing their  own  friends  when  those  friends  go  wrong, 
and  attack  the  cause  of  protection  on  academic 
grounds. 

The  sale  of  game  has  already  been  mentioned  as 
one  of  the  most  powerful  agencies  employed  in  the 

i  The  first  decision  on  the  status  of  the  migratory  law  was  that 
rendered  in  South  Dakota  on  April  18,  1914,  by  Judge  J.  D.  Elliott 
of  the  Federal  Court,  who  decided,  in  the  case  of  A.  M.  Shaw,  that 
the  law  is  constitutional.  Mr.  Shaw  pleaded  guilty,  and  was  fined 
$100,  which  was  paid. 

In  the  eastern  district  of  Arkansas,  at  Jonesboro,  on  May  27,  in 
the  United  States  District  Court,  the  case  of  the  United  States  against 
Harvey  C.  Schauver,  for  a  violation  of  the  federal  migratory  bird  law, 
was  heard  by  Judge  Jacob  Trieber,  who  decided  that  "the  law  is  uncon- 
stitutional." Of  course  the  United  States  will  carry  the  case  up 
until  it  finally  reaches  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  where,  with 
extra  expedition,  a  decision  may  be  expected  in  about  eighteen 
months.  -  The  Arkansas  decision  affects  only  the  eastern  district  of 
that  state,  and  elsewhere  the  law  will  be  strictly  enforced. 


32  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

destruction  and  extermination  of  our  wild  birds. 
The  destruction  of  game-birds  by  sportsmen  is 
trifling  in  comparison  with  the  slaughter  by  com- 
merce. Quite  recently  there  was  published  in  a 
sportsmen's  magazine  the  records  of  individual 
slaughter  that  had  been  made  and  kept  for  forty 
years  by  a  professional  market-hunter.  Having  a 
liking  for  bookkeeping,  the  hunter  kept  accurate 
and  continuous  records.  Here  are  the  main  items, 
and  the  grand  total:  In  a  three-months'  shoot  in 
Iowa  and  Minnesota,  he  killed  6,250  game-birds. 
In  one  winter's  duck  hunting  in  the  South,  he  killed 
4,450  ducks.  During  his  forty  years'  market- 
hunting  he  killed  61,752  ducks,  5,291  prairie- 
chickens,  8,117  useful  blackbirds,  5,291  quail,  5,066 
snipe  and  4,948  plover.  His  grand  total  of  slaugh- 
ter was  139,628  game-birds  and  sundries,  represent- 
ing twenty-nine  species,  several  of  them  not  game 
and  useful. 

During  the  past  fifteen  years,  many  states  have 
gradually  been  cleaning  house  in  the  matter  of  the 
commercial  slaughter  of  their  game,  and  many  good 
half-way  laws  have  been  enacted.  The  original 
rule  was  for  a  state  to  protect  its  own  game,  but  to 
permit  the  sale  of  game  slaughtered  in  other  states. 
This  essentially  selfish  basis  led  to  an  immense 
amount  of  mutual  poaching  and  selling,  and  the 
results  were  most  disastrous. 

In  1911,  the  state  of  New  York  led  the  way  in  a 
sweeping  reform.  The  legislature  enacted  the 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  33 

now  famous  Bayne  law,  which  absolutely  prohibits 
the  sale  in  that  state  of  any  American  wild  game, 
no  matter  where  killed,  and  strictly  limits  the  sale 
of  all  foreign  game.  It  does  permit  the  importa- 
tion and  sale  of  six  species  of  game  birds  and 
mammals  that  are  very  commonly  killed  in  Europe 
on  preserves  and  sold  for  food;  and  it  also  permits 
the  sale,  under  official  state  tags,  of  white-tailed 
deer,  mallard  ducks,  black  ducks  and  pheasants 
that  have  been  bred  and  reared  in  captivity  in  New 
York,  and  killed  and  tagged  according  to  law. 

This  law  had  the  immediate  and  visible  effect  of 
stopping  fully  one-half  of  the  enormous  annual 
duck  and  goose  slaughter  on  Currituck  Sound, 
North  Carolina,  and  it  directly  benefited  each 
of  the  sixteen  states  in  the  line  of  annual  flight  of 
about  150,000  unkilled  wild  fowl.  The  action  of 
New  York  was  immediately  followed  by  similar 
action  in  Massachusetts;  after  which,  in  1913,  the 
state  of  California  also  wheeled  into  line.  The 
California  law  is  now  being  attacked  by  a  petition 
for  a  referendum,  and  the  enemies  of  wild  life 
have  found  20,000  persons  who  were  unwise  enough 
to  sign  against  the  new  law. 

At  present  the  principal  remaining  plague-spots 
for  the  sale  of  wild  game  are  New  Haven,  Provi- 
dence, Baltimore,  Washington,  Richmond,  Atlanta, 
Chicago  and  Denver. 

The  most  sweeping  victory  for  birds  that  up  to 
this  date  (1914)  has  been  achieved  was  that  which 


34  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

on  October  4,  1913,  set  over  the  birds  of  the  world 
an  impenetrable  shield  for  their  protection  from  the 
feather  millinery  trade  of  America.  This  was 
accomplished  through  a  clause  in  the  new  tariff  bill 
absolutely  prohibiting  the  importation  of  any  fancy 
feathers,  plumes,  skins  or  quills  of  wild  birds  other 
than  the  ostriches  and  domestic  fowls,  for  commer- 
cial uses.  Thus  was  there  achieved  in  this  country, 
after  six  months  of  diligent  labor,  a  result  for  which 
England  throughout  six  years  has  striven  in  vain, 
but  which  now  is  near  attainment,  through  a 
government  measure  known  as  "the  Hobhouse 
bill."  The  clause  in  the  new  tariff  bill,  drafted  by 
and  championed  by  the  New  York  Zoological  So- 
ciety, gave  the  women  and  men  of  America  the  first 
opportunity  that  ever  had  been  offered  them  to 
strike  one  crushing  blow  at  the  feather  millinery 
disgrace. 

The  opportunity  was  improved  to  the  utmost, 
and  after  the  fiercest  battle  ever  waged  in  the 
United  States  Senate  over  any  measure  for  the  pro- 
tection of  wild  life,  the  protection  cause  completely 
triumphed.  To-day  the  ports  of  the  United  States 
and  its  colonial  possessions  are  absolutely  closed  to 
the  plumage  of  wild  birds.  As  a  first  result,  con- 
sider the  great  quarterly  feather  sale  in  London  on 
October  14.  On  account  of  the  closing  of  the 
American  market,  more  than  one-third  of  all  the 
feathers  offered  there  were  unsalable,  and  had  to  be 
withdrawn.  In  Berlin,  the  price  of  aigrettes  has 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  35 

fallen  20  per  cent,  and  in  Paris  the  milliners  fear 
that  the  fashion  for  aigrettes  is  as  good  as  dead, 
because  their  best  customers  can  wear  them  no 
more. 

The  sweeping  prohibition  that  we  have  enacted 
sets  the  pace  for  the  civilized  world.  The  suppres- 
sion of  the  cruel  slaughter  of  the  innocents  at  the 
behest  of  fashion  and  vanity  and  commercial  greed, 
was  here  treated  as  a  cause  involving  the  honor  of 
the  nation.  To-day  the  people  of  England,  Hol- 
land, France  and  Germany  are  appealing  to  their 
governments  on  the  same  basis.  The  honor  of 
nations  demands  the  suppression  of  bird  slaughter 
for  plumage;  and  assuredly  that  suppression  will 
come,  and  be  made  general.  The  crusade  affects 
at  least  a  hundred  species  of  the  most  beautiful  and 
curious  birds  of  the  world,  the  most  of  them  to-day 
quite  unprotected,  so  far  as  the  laws  of  their  home 
countries  are  concerned. 

In  assembling  our  conclusions,  we  find  that  the 
first  relates  to  the  state  of  the  public  mind. 

During  the  past  fifteen  years,  the  improvement 
in  that  direction  has  been  enormous !  To-day,  dras- 
tic measures  can  be  enacted  into  law  which  even  ten 
years  ago  would  have  been  deemed  visionary, 
fanatical  and  wildly  impossible.  To-day  a  million 
American  people  are  anxious  to  atone  for  their  past 
follies  in  the  destruction  of  wild  life.  To-day,  the 
man  who  proposes  a  great  reform,  and  appeals  to 
the  mass  of  people  who  do  not  shoot  wild  life,  soon 


36  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

finds  both  sympathy  and  support.  The  greater  the 
cause,  the  greater  its  chances  for  success — provided 
a  fair  amount  of  time,  labor  and  money  is  judi- 
ciously expended  on  the  campaign. 

With  a  campaign  fund  of  $5,000, — to  be  ex- 
pended chiefly  in  printer's  ink  and  postage, — we 
would  guarantee  to  give  any  state  in  this  union  a 
new  code  of  modern  protective  laws  in  eight 
months'  time.  The  greatest  factor  in  reforming 
the  wild-life  situation  is  education:  for  it  is  the 
educated  people  who  educate  their  legislators  into 
the  making  of  better  laws  and  providing  means  for 
their  enforcement. 

At  this  moment  the  minds  of  millions  of  Ameri- 
cans are,  toward  wild  life,  like  negatives  all  ready 
to  receive  definite  impressions  regarding  the  needs 
of  the  hour.  And  imagine,  if  you  please,  what  it 
would  mean  to  the  wild  life  of  the  nation  if  every 
college  and  university  graduate  should  go  forth 
with  a  good  working  knowledge  of  the  wild-life 
situation,  coupled  with  a  fully  aroused  sense  of 
personal  duty  toward  it.  Is  it  not  a  very  great  pity 
that  only  a  few  of  our  universities  pay  attention  to 
this  subject,  and  that  through  a  lack  of  attention 
the  services  of  what  might  have  been  a  mighty  host 
of  crusaders  has  been  lost! 

The  men  and  women  of  this  country  who  for 
years  have  been  toiling  to  save  the  wild  life  of  the 
nation  have  wrought  because  they  have  been 
spurred  by  a  sense  of  duty ;  merely  this  and  nothing 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  37 

more.  We  of  to-day  have  no  right  to  destroy,  or  to 
permit  others  to  destroy,  the  principal  of  a  wild- 
life inheritance  that  belongs  to  posterity  fully  as 
much  as  to  ourselves.  We  hold  the  wild  life  of  our 
glorious  land  IN  TRUST,  and  it  is  our  duty  to  protect 
it  adequately  from  the  spendthrifts  who  would 
foolishly  butcher  it  and  destroy  it. 

Thanks  to  the  fighting  that  already  has  been 
done,  the  army  of  destruction  has  been  routed  on 
many  a  field,  and  its  entire  line  of  battle  has  been 
checked.  I  wish  it  were  in  our  power  to  speak  to 
every  American  who  loves  his  country  and  say  that 
it  pays  to  fight  in  this  cause.  In  1912,  a  band  of 
teachers,  curators  and  students  in  the  University 
of  California  decided  that  it  was  their  bounden 
duty  to  put  forth  a  supreme  effort  to  save  the  wild 
birds  and  mammals  of  that  state  from  the  annihi- 
lation that  was  then  in  full  progress.  They  ad- 
dressed themselves  to  the  task  before  them  like 
men!  They  organized  an  army  of  defense  such  as 
California  never  before  had  seen;  and  they  taught 
the  sportsmen  of  California  the  foundation  prin- 
ciples of  real  campaigning  in  behalf  of  wild  life. 

In  the  terrific  conflict  that  ensued,  in  which 
nearly  every  large  newspaper  in  the  state  was 
bitterly  arrayed  against  them,  they  never  wavered 
or  looked  back.  Eventually  the  contest  ended  in 
an  almost  complete  victory  for  the  wild-life  cause, 
and  in  a  manner  that  reflected  great  credit  on  the 
University  of  California. 


38  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

The  most  important  conclusion  to  be  drawn  from 
the  records  of  the  past  is  that  it  is  quite  possible  to 
save  the  existing  remnants  of  our  continental  stock 
of  wild  life,  and  also  entirely  practicable.  It  is  a 
matter  of  individual  effort  and  campaign-expense 
money.  Five  years  ago  the  cause  seemed  almost 
hopeless,  and  many  persons  predicted  that  in  a  few 
years  no  large  game  would  remain  anywhere  in  the 
United  States  outside  of  rigidly  protected  game 
preserves.  But,  thanks  to  the  energy  and  persist- 
ence of  the  men  and  women  on  the  firing-line,  that 
gloomy  expectation  has  been  dissipated.  It  is  now 
admitted  that  the  extermination  of  a  species  is  a 
crime;  that  the  wild  life  of  the  nation  belongs  more 
to  the  97  per  cent  of  people  who  do  not  go  hunting 
and  do  not  kill,  than  to  the  3  per  cent  who  do.  It 
has  been  found  that  large  men  prefer  to  aid  large 
measures,  and  it  costs  not  much  more  to  enact  a 
great  bill  into  law  than  it  does  to  promote  a  small 
one.  It  has  been  demonstrated  that  millions  of 
people  are  quite  willing  to  promote  the  protection 
of  wild  life  if  they  are  only  informed,  and  told  what 
to  do,  and  reasonably  led.  The  fact  that  it  has 
been  proven  possible  to  secure  practical  results  has 
encouraged  thousands  to  take  hold. 

The  success  and  popularity  of  the  national  parks 
and  national  game-preserves  has  led  to  great  activ- 
ities in  that  particular  field  of  endeavor.  The 
Yellowstone  Park,  with  its  herds  of  bear,  moun- 
tain sheep,  antelope,  mule  deer,  bison  and  moose, 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  39 

led  straight  to  Glacier  Park,  the  magnificent,  with 
its  1,400  square  miles  of  towering  peaks,  plunging 
valleys,  glaciers,  lakes  and  forests.  As  a  public 
reservoir  for  mountain  goats,  sheep,  grizzly  bear, 
black  bear  and  moose,  it  is  a  domain  that  we  can 
hand  down  to  posterity  with  the  utmost  pride. 
There  is  reason  to  believe  that  it  will  preserve  the 
mountain  goat  from  extinction  in  the  United 
States.  The  magnificent  forests  of  Douglas  and 
Engelmann  spruce,  white  pine,  white  cedar  and  fir 
that  fill  its  valleys  and  fringe  its  lakes  are  a  price- 
less heritage.  While  we  think  of  it,  we  are  re- 
minded how  utterly  and  hopelessly  marred  would 
be  that  grand  mountain  fastness  if  our  forbears  had 
wantonly  destroyed  all  that  timber,  as  the  men  and 
boys  of  yesterday  and  to-day  were  striving,  and 
are  striving,  to  annihilate  all  our  finest  beasts  and 
birds. 

No  one  thanks  an  ancestor  who  hands  over  to  him 
only  desolation,  ugliness  and  poverty. 

In  addition  to  the  Yellowstone  and  Glacier 
parks,  our  group  of  national  parks  includes  the 
Mt.  Olympus  National  Monument  in  the  Olympic 
mountains  of  Washington,  a  wild,  rugged  and 
little-known  region  of  rough  mountains  and  heavy 
timber,  inhabited  by  about  1,200  elk.  In  the  arid 
regions,  the  Grand  Canyon  National  Park  has 
been  created,  to  include  101  miles  of  the  awful 
meanderings  of  the  mighty  chasm,  its  northern  and 
western  side  literally  reeking  with  pumas  and 


40  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

wolves  that  subsist  on  mule  deer  and  mountain 
sheep.  There  are  several  smaller  national  parks, 
such  as  Sequoia, — for  the  big  redwood  trees, — 
Yosemite,  General  Grant  and  Crater  Lake. 

Of  great  importance  to  the  American  bison  are 
the  four  national  bison  ranges  that  have  been 
created  especially  for  the  perpetuation  of  that 
species.  Two  of  these  have  been  stocked  by  the 
New  York  Zoological  Society  and  one  by  the 
American  Bison  Society.  The  four  are  located  as 
follows:  in  the  Wichita  Mountains,  southwestern 
Oklahoma;  in  the  southern  end  of  the  old  Flathead 
Indian  reservation  near  Ravalli,  Montana;  at 
Wind  Cave,  in  the  southern  terminus  of  the  Black 
Hills,  South  Dakota;  and  the  old  Fort  Niobrara 
Military  Reservation,  in  Nebraska. 

In  the  national  parks  and  national  game-pre- 
serves no  hunting  is  allowed;  and  these  are  indeed 
wild-life  preserves.  In  the  vast  stretches  of  the 
national  forests  that  plentifully  blotch  with  green 
the  map  of  the  western  third  of  the  United  States, 
hunting  is  allowed  in  accordance  with  the  state 
laws ;  and  beyond  all  possibility  of  serious  question, 
the  killable  wild  life  is  rapidly  vanishing  from  those 
areas.  There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  anywhere 
in  North  America  where  hunting  is  allowed,  any 
species  of  big  game  except  wolves  are  breeding 
more  rapidly  than  they  are  being  killed.  Every 
national  forest  should  be  made  a  hard  and  fast 
national  game-preserve,,  in  which  no  hunting  for 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  41 

sport  ever  should  be  permitted.  Of  course  the 
noxious  wild  animals  must  be  killed;  but  that  is 
another  story. 

Let  me  offer  one  painful  illustration  of  the  folly 
of  leaving  to  the  states  the  preservation  of  their 
game,  as  the  sport  of  politics  and  favoritism,  when 
it  is  possible  for  the  nation  at  large  to  preserve  it. 
At  this  moment  the  states  of  Wyoming,  Montana 
and  Idaho  actually  permit  by  law  the  hunting  and 
killing  of  their  pitiful  remnants  of  mountain  sheep. 
Their  laws  provide  for  the  killing  of  rams  only, 
and  are  supposed  to  protect  the  females  for  breed- 
ing purposes.  But  do  they  really  preserve  the 
breeding  female  sheep  ?  Emphatically  they  do  not. 
Wherever  sheep  or  goats  are  killed,  the  females 
disappear  fully  as  rapidly  as  the  males!  Is  it  not 
strange  that  none  of  those  states  have  taken  note 
of  this?  The  result  is  steady  and  sure  extermina- 
tion! Wyoming  has  to-day  hardly  more  than  one 
hundred  wild  sheep  on  her  hunting-grounds,  and 
the  rapacity  and  determination  with  which  those 
sheep  are  hunted  by  gentlemen  sportsmen  and  their 
hired  guides  has  an  aspect  that  is  positively  fiendish. 

The  moment  the  national  forests  become  national 
game-preserves,  from  that  moment  those  mountain 
sheep  are  assured  of  real  protection. 

The  laws  of  the  western  and  Pacific  coast  states 
have  been  dictated  chiefly  by  the  sportsmen — the 
men  who  kill.  They  insist  upon  open  seasons,  as 
long  as  any  killable  game  remains.  The  pressure 


42  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

of  the  organized  sportsmen  on  the  western  state 
legislator  is  too  great  for  the  best  interests  of  the 
wild  life.  What  shall  be  done? 

A  great  step  remains  to  be  taken.  Ten  years 
ago,  when  the  national  forest  idea  was  fighting  for 
its  life  in  Congress,  even  the  President  did  not  dare 
to  mention  above  a  whisper  the  logical  conclusion 
of  the  western  big-game  situation,  which  is  this : 

In  the  near  future,  Congressional  legislation 
must  be  enacted  which  will  make  of  every  national 
forest  a  national  game-preserve,  in  which  no  hunt- 
ing for  sport  is  permitted. 

Whenever  such  a  demand  is  formally  launched, 
a  roar  of  disapproval  and  protest  will  arise  from 
the  men  of  the  West  who  now  hunt  in  the  national 
forests,  and  are  bent  on  maintaining  their  killing 
privileges.  As  was  the  case  with  the  Bayne  bill 
against  the  sale  of  game,  the  cry  will  be  raised: 
"Too  drastic!  Too  sweeping!  Revolutionary!  It 
means  prohibition  of  hunting,"  etc.  But  we  have 
heard  all  this  many  times  before.  The  thing  to  do, 
all  over  the  world,  is  to  save  the  wild  life  even 
though  slaughtering  privileges  are  cut  off  in  the 
doing  of  it. 

Regarding  their  game,  the  western  mountain 
states  have  well-nigh  sinned  away  their  days  of 
grace.  Let  them  alone  a  little  longer,  and  they  will 
be  as  barren  of  all  game  as  the  Colorado  desert. 
In  legal  parlance,  they  have  slept  on  their  rights, — 


VALUABLE  WILD  LIFE  43 

their  state  rights  to  preserve  their  game  in  fact  as 
well  as  in  name. 

A  little  later,  when  Congress  has  recovered  from 
the  weariness  of  the  conflict  over  feather  millinery, 
we  will  ask  for  the  legislation  that  will  be  necessary 
to  turn  each  and  every  national  forest-reserve  into 
a  haven  of  refuge  and  a  sanctuary  inviolate  for  the 
harassed  wild  birds  and  mammals  that  must  find  in 
them  shelter  and  life,  or  perish. 

When  the  time  comes  for  us  to  undertake  that 
task,  we  will  call  upon  the  men  of  Yale,  both  within 
these  walls  and  without  them,  to  make  that  task 
their  own.  If  it  were  only  possible  to  induce 
American  college  men  at  large  to  give  active  aid  in 
that  mighty  struggle,  a  victory  would  positively  be 
assured.  The  cause  will  loom  so  large  that  it  should 
attract  large  men  and  commend  itself  to  every 
statesman  in  Congress. 

Look  at  a  map  showing  the  national  forest- 
reserves.  Those  reserves  belong  to  the  people  of 
the  nation  at  large — partly  to  you  and  to  me.  Shall 
we  not  exercise  our  lawful  right  to  stop  game 
slaughter  within  their  borders?  Think  what  such  a 
step  would  mean  to  the  wild  life  of  the  western  third 
of  our  country  and  to  posterity, — to  both  of  which 
we  owe  duties  that  we  can  not  with  honor  neglect 
or  evade. 


CHAPTER  II 

THE  ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS 

After  twenty  years  of  more  or  less  constant  edu- 
cational work  and  legislative  warfare,  some  of  the 
birds  of  our  country,  that  make  war  on  the  insect 
world,  and  protect  our  crops  and  forests,  have  at 
last  come  to  their  own.  The  passage  of  the 
McLean- Weeks  federal  migratory  bird  bill,  in 
May,  1913,  into  the  federal  migratory  bird  law,  was 
the  crowning  effort  of  a  long  and  arduous  series  of 
campaigns!  The  bill  was  driven  through  both 
houses  of  Congress  by  a  tornado  of  popular  de- 
mand. For  five  years  or  longer,  the  Shiras  bill  for 
the  federal  protection  of  migratory  game-biTds  had 
slumbered  in  the  pigeon-holes  of  the  committees  to 
which  it  had  been  referred,  for  the  simple  reason 
that  the  public  at  large  was  not  deeply  interested  in 
the  federal  protection  of  birds  that  were  destined 
only  to  be  slaughtered  by  all  kinds  of  gunners,  and 
especially  market-gunners. 

The  amending  of  the  McLean  bill,  by  a  provision 
for  the  protection  of  the  insectivorous  birds  gen- 
erally, had  the  immediate  effect  of  galvanizing  the 
whole  measure  into  life.  The  press  of  the  country, 
the  granges,  the  Audubonists,  the  sportsmen  and 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS          45 

the  friends  of  birds  at  large  filed  such  insistent  and 
persistent  demands  for  the  law  that  Congress  was 
amazed;  and  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  several 
senators  who  doubted  the  constitutionality  of  the 
McLean  bill  purposely  refrained  from  voting 
against  it  because  of  the  strength  of  the  popular 
demand  for  the  law. 

And  well  may  the  producers  and  consumers  of 
food  and  timber  desire  the  protection  of  the  birds 
that  help  to  protect  the  crops  and  the  trees  at  large 
from  the  insect  hordes  that  are  ever  present  to 
destroy  root,  branch,  leaf,  flower  and  fruit.  It  is 
indeed  high  time  for  the  forester  and  the  lumber- 
man to  become  practical  bird  protectionists,  and 
devote  both  time  and  effort  to  the  making  of  laws, 
and  the  enforcement  of  laws,  for  the  thorough  pro- 
tection of  all  birds  that  consume  the  insect  enemies 
of  trees.  I  believe  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  estimate 
that  more  trees  are  annually  destroyed  in  the 
United  States  by  insects  than  are  destroyed  by  fire ; 
and  yet  much  more  is  said  about  the  protection  of 
forests  from  fires  than  from  insects.  Some  of  the 
far  western  states,  particularly  Washington  and 
Oregon,  have  been  flooded  with  admirable  fire- 
alarm  circulars  and  posters;  but  has  any  state 
lumbermen's  association,  or  any  organization  of 
forest  protectors,  ever  made  a  whirlwind  campaign 
for  the  better  protection  of  forests  from  insects  ? 

Fires  are  spectacular  and  tragic,  and  it  is  nat- 
ural that  they  should  fix  public  attention  far  more 


46  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

than  the  bark-beetles,  wood-borers  and  leaf- 
destroyers  that  work  so  silently  and  yet  so  fatally. 
The  fire-watchers  of  the  great  forest  regions  of  the 
far  West  are  ceaselessly  diligent  in  watching  for 
smoke  from  peak  summit  and  lofty  tower,  and  tele- 
phoning the  news  of  every  fire  observed ;  but  no  one 
is  able  to  exercise  any  such  protective  vigilance 
against  the  ravages  of  insects.  In  the  general 
slaughter  of  wild  life,  the  most  valuable  of  tree- 
protecting  birds  have  been  rapidly  fading  away. 
We  first  note  their  disappearance  by  the  fact  that 
they  are  much  less  numerous  than  formerly,  and 
finally  are  becoming  rare;  and  we  know  that  they 
are  shot  and  eaten  by  the  northern  Italian  and  the 
southern  negro. 

For  many  reasons,  it  seems  both  desirable  and 
necessary  that  every  friend  and  protector  of  bird 
life  should  be  armed  with  precise  information 
regarding  the  economic  value  of  our  birds.  In  pro- 
tective warfare,  such  facts  are  continually  called 
for,  particularly  by  newspaper  reporters  and  edi- 
tors, magazine  writers,  members  of  law-making 
bodies,  and  even  judges  on  the  bench  who  are 
friendly  and  anxious  to  help.  The  amount  of  exact 
information  that  must  each  year  be  furnished  for 
practical  use  regarding  the  value  of  our  insectivor- 
ous birds  is  enormous,  and  the  demand  for  such 
information  is  certain  to  be  continuous. 

Let  no  friend  of  the  birds  be  deceived  into  the 
belief  that  because  the  federal  migratory  bird  law  is 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS  47 

now  on  the  national  statute  books,  the  birds  neces- 
sarily are  safe,  without  further  campaigning.  That 
is  far  from  being  the  case.  The  struggle  for  the 
saving  and  bringing  back  of  the  birds  is  our  new 
"irrepressible  conflict."  Let  us  look  the  situation 
squarely  in  the  eyes,  and  prepare  ourselves  for  what 
is  inevitable. 

Just  so  long  as  any  wild  birds  live  there  will  be 
deadly  enemies  seeking  to  destroy  them;  and  it  is 
our  bounden  duty  to  be  constantly  on  the  alert 3  and 
ready  to  repel  the  attack  of  every  foe.  Just  so 
long  as  repressive  protective  laws  remain  upon  our 
statute  books  will  the  enemies  of  wild  life  strive  to 
repeal  or  nullify  them. 

Let  us  briefly  review  the  investigations  and  the 
facts  that  have  demonstrated  the  commercial  and 
industrial  value  of  our  wild  birds.  Naturally, 
foresters  will  be  interested  in  hearing  first  of  the 
birds  that  benefit  the  trees  of  our  country. 

Thousands  of  species  of  insects  feed  upon  and 
shelter  in  the  trees  of  the  street,  the  park,  the 
orchard  and  the  forest.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to 
assert  that  every  tree  has  its  insect  enemies.  The 
chief  points  of  attack  are  the  bark  and  the  leaves ; 
but  the  wood  also  is  attacked  by  many  destructive 
borers.  To  one  who  loves  trees,  who  has  planted 
hundreds  with  his  own  hands  and  caused  the  plant- 
ing of  thousands  more,  there  are  times  when  the 
work  of  the  insect  pests  become  fairly  heartbreak- 
ing. The  awful  chestnut  blight,  which  is  due  to  a 


48  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

fungus,  not  an  insect,  was  first  discovered  in  the 
northeastern  states  in  the  New  York  Zoological 
Park,  by  its  chief  forester,  and  it  was  then  and  there 
that  a  fierce  battle  was  fought,  of  two  years'  dura- 
tion, to  find  means  by  which  it  could  be  stamped  out. 
But  the  effort  was  in  vain.  The  chestnut  blight  has 
baffled  all  efforts  to  hold  it  in  check,  or  to  end  its 
evil  progress.  It  was  also  in  the  Zoological  Park 
that  the  hickory-bark  borer  was  vigorously  attacked 
for  the  first  time  in  the  vicinity  of  New  York. 

In  the  summer  of  1912, 1  made  a  few  notes  of  the 
ravages  of  insects  in  progress  at  that  time,  under 
my  observation,  and  of  the  efforts  that  were  being 
made  to  stop  them.  Here  is  the  memorandum : 

July  12: — -The  bag  insects,  in  thousands,  are  devouring 
the  leaves  of  the  locusts  and  maples. 

The  elm  beetles  are  at  work  on  the  foliage  of  the  elms ;  and 
spraying  operations  are  in  progress. 

The  hickory-bark  borers  are  slaughtering  the  hickories; 
and  even  some  Park  people  are  neglecting  to  take  the  measures 
necessary  to  stop  them. 

The  tent  caterpillars  are  being  burned. 

The  aphides  (plant-lice)  are  destroying  the  tops  of  the 
white  potatoes  in  the  school  garden  of  the  New  York  Uni- 
versity, just  as  the  potato-beetles  do. 

The  codling-moth  larvae  are  already  at  work  on  the  apples. 

The  leaves  affected  by  the  witch-hazel  gall-insect  are  being 
cut  off  and  burned. 

This  schedule  did  not  attempt  to  take  into 
account  any  save  the  most  conspicuous  of  the  insect 
pests  that  were  in  evidence  on  that  one  day.  It  is 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS  49 

only  a  faint  reflection  of  the  hand-to-hand  fight 
that  tree-owners  and  tree-protectors  are  called 
upon  to  wage  each  year  against  insect  enemies. 

In  order  that  we  may  approach  our  subject  in  a 
thoroughly  chastened  and  humble  frame  of  mind, 
let  us  make  a  brief  survey  of  the  damage  inflicted 
in  a  stated  period  upon  agriculture,  horticulture 
and  forestry  in  the  United  States. 

In  1903,  the  Department  of  Agriculture  very 
wisely  ordered  a  group  of  its  expert  investigators 
and  statisticians  to  examine  and  to  report  upon  the 
annual  damage  inflicted  by  insects  upon  the  leading 
industrial  interests  of  our  country.  The  investiga- 
tion was  directed  by  Mr.  C.  L.  Marlatt,  and  the 
results  were  published  in  the  departmental  Year- 
book of  1904.  It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that 
they  profoundly  astonished  the  public.  The  figures 
representing  damages  were  arrived  at  by  obtaining 
estimates  of  the  percentage  of  loss  for  1903  to  the 
various  plant  industries  of  the  nation  and  to  forests, 
and  from  the  known  value  of  the  various  crops  the 
amount  of  damage  to  each  was  figured  out.  So  far 
as  I  am  aware,  the  accuracy  of  the  published  figures 
never  has  been  disputed.  The  annual  loss  to  the 
various  crops  ranges  from  10  to  20  per  cent.  The 
following  is  the  statement  of  annual  losses  on  farm 
and  forest  products  chargeable  to  insect  pests : 


50  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

Natural  forests  and 

forest  products,  $100,000,000. 

Cereals,  10  per  cent,  200,000,000. 

Hay,  10  per  cent,  53,000,000. 

Cotton,  10  per  cent,  60,000,000. 

Tobacco,  10  per  cent,  5,300,000. 

Truck  crops,  20  per  cent,  53,000,000. 

Sugar,  10  per  cent,  5,000,000. 

Fruits,  20  per  cent,  27,000,000. 

Farm  forests,  10  per  cent,  11,000,000. 

Miscellaneous    crops,  10  per  cent,  5,800,000. 


Total,  $520,100,000. 

The  losses  inflicted  by  insect  pests  on  forests  and 
forest  products  were  estimated  by  Dr.  A.  D. 
Hopkins,  the  departmental  special  agent  in  charge 
of  forest  insect  investigations.  Every  person  who 
will  read,  or  even  examine,  Dr.  Hopkins's  writings 
on  his  special  subject  surely  will  be  convinced  that 
of  all  men  in  America  he  is  best  qualified  to  speak 
with  authority  on  that  subject.  His  estimate  of 
$100,000,000  as  the  annual  loss  to  timber  interests 
covers  the  losses  from  insect  damages  to  standing 
timber,  and  also  to  forest  products,  both  crude  and 
manufactured. 

Dr.  Hopkins's  work  on  the  bark-beetles  of  North 
America  is,  to  the  layman,  a  startling  revelation. 
For  example,  it  shows  that,  leaving  all  other  insects 
out  of  consideration,  there  are  seven  species  of  bark- 
beetles  whose  depredations  cover  the  whole  area  of 
the  coniferous  forests  of  the  United  States.  Each 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS          51 

particularly  valuable  species  of  spruce  and  pine  has 
its  particular  curse,  from  the  Engelmann  spruce 
bark-beetle  of  the  far  Northwest  to  the  southern 
pine-beetle  of  Georgia  and  Florida.  The  deadly 
seven  are  as  follows,  and  their  areas  of  destruction 
are  indicated  by  their  names: 

Western  pine-beetle, 
Montana  pine-beetle, 
Engelmann  spruce-beetle, 
Douglas  fir-beetle, 
Southern  pine-beetle, 
Black  Hills  beetle, 
Eastern  spruce-beetle. 

These  species  cover  all  the  areas  of  coniferous 
forests  in  the  United  States. 

Corn. — Of  the  cereal  crops,  corn  is  destroyed, — 
root,  stem,  leaves  and  fruit, — by  the  following 
insects :  chinch-bug,  corn- root  worm,  bill-bug,  wire- 
worm,  boll-worm  or  ear-worm,  cutworm,  army- 
worm,  stalk-worm,  grasshopper  and  plant-lice, — in 
all  about  fifty  important  species.  Of  all  the  cereal 
crops,  Wheat  is  the  one  that  suffers  most  severely 
from  insects.  Its  three  deadliest  enemies  are  the 
chinch-bug,  Hessian  fly  and  plant-louse.  In  the 
year  1900,  the  Hessian  fly  caused,  in  the  states  of 
Ohio  and  Indiana  alone,  the  loss  of  2,577,000  acres 
of  wheat ! 

The  Hay  and  Forage  crops  are  attacked  by 
locusts,  grasshoppers,  army-worms,  cutworms,  web- 


52  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

worms,  small  grass-worms  and  leaf-hoppers.  Some 
of  these  pests  are  so  small,  and  work  so  insidiously, 
that  even  the  farmer  is  prone  to  overlook  their 
existence.  The  10  per  cent  annual  shrinkage  in 
these  crops  was  declared  to  be  "a  minimum  esti- 
mate." 

Cotton. — The  great  enemies  of  the  cotton- 
planter  are  the  cotton-boll  weevil,  the  boll-worm, 
and  the  leaf -worm:  but  there  are  others  that  do 
serious  damage.  In  1904  the  loss  from  the  boll- 
weevil  alone,  and  chiefly  in  Texas,  was  estimated 
at  $20,000,000.  Before  the  use  of  arsenical  poisons, 
the  leaf -worm  caused  an  annual  loss  of  from  $20,- 
000,000  to  $30,000,000,  but  during  recent  years 
that  total  has  been  greatly  reduced. 

Fruit. — The  insects  that  destroy  our  fruit  crops 
attack  every  portion  of  the  tree  and  its  fruit.  The 
woolly  aphis  attacks  the  roots;  the  trunk  and 
limbs  are  preyed  upon  by  millions  of  plant-lice, 
scale-insects  and  borers;  the  leaves  are  devastated 
by  the  all-devouring  leaf-worms,  canker-worms 
and  tent-caterpillars,  while  the  fruit  itself  is 
attacked  by  the  curculio,  codling-moth  and  apple- 
maggot.  By  the  annual  expenditure  of  about 
$8,000,000  in  cash  in  the  spraying  of  apple-trees, 
the  destructiveness  of  the  codling-moth  and  cur- 
culio have  been  greatly  reduced ;  but  of  course  that 
great  sum  must  be  set  down  as  a  total  loss  to  the 
farmers  and  consumers,  in  addition  to  a  shrinkage 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS  53 

of  $12,000,000  in  the  annual  crop  from  insect 
ravages  that  could  not  be  prevented. 

Now,  in  view  of  the  foregoing,  is  it,  or  is  it  not, 
worth  while  for  serious-minded  men  to  do  their 
very  utmost,  continuously,  to  protect  from  foolish 
and  brutal  slaughter  man's  only  allies  in  the  insect 
war,  the  insect-eating  birds?  Let  us  see  what  we 
have  to  gain  by  such  protection. 

Fortunately  for  the  producers  and  consumers  of 
the  United  States,  our  Department  of  Agriculture 
has  made  thorough  and  exhaustive  investigations 
into  the  food-habits  of  our  insect-eating  birds,  and 
the  results  are  available  to  the  world.  These 
results  have  been  obtained  by  collecting  a  large 
series  of  specimens  of  each  bird  species  investigated, 
covering  the  entire  year,  and  carefully  examining 
the  contents  of  each  stomach. 

There  is  one  important  factor,  however,  that 
those  investigations  have  not  taken  into  account, 
and  that  is,  the  enormous  number  of  insects,  or  ra- 
ther of  insect  larvce,  that  are  consumed  by  each 
nesting  pair  of  birds  in  rearing  its  young.  Each 
pair  of  insectivorous  birds  that  breeds  in  our  coun- 
try gives  "hostages  to  fortune"  in  the  shape  of  an 
ever  hungry  nestful  of  young  birds.  Irrevocably 
it  commits  itself  to  a  line  of  activities  in  insect  de- 
struction that  is  almost  beyond  belief.  It  is  no 
uncommon  thing  for  a  pair  of  perching  birds  to 
bring  insect  food  to  their  young  100,  200  or  even 
250  times  in  a  day.  Fortunate  indeed  is  the  farmer 


54  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

on  whose  insect-ridden  premises  the  warblers, 
phoebe  birds,  vireos,  thrushes  or  catbirds  make  their 
nests  and  rear  their  hungry  broods. 

It  is  well  that  the  experts  of  the  Department  of 
Agriculture  have  put  before  us  names  and  figures 
to  reveal  the  work  of  the  insectivorous  birds.  The 
birds  do  their  entomological  work  so  quietly  and 
unostentatiously  that  until  the  records  were  given 
us,  we  had  no  adequate  conception  of  the  extent  or 
the  value  of  the  work  annually  accomplished  for  us 
by  our  feathered  friends.  The  average  farmer 
notices  most  particularly  the  birds  that  damage  his 
cherries  and  grapes.  The  average  friend  of  the 
birds  notices  particularly  those  whose  songs  appeal 
to  him,  and  it  is  only  the  confirmed  bird-lover  who 
is  willing  to  make  the  observations  that  count. 

I  heartily  wish  that  every  forester  in  America 
could  have  seen  what  I  saw  no  longer  ago  than  last 
September  in  the  Berkshire  Hills  when  the  song- 
birds were  beginning  to  move  southward.  By  acci- 
dent of  position,  I  saw  a  flock  of  perhaps  twenty- 
five  warblers  go  through  the  top  of  a  large  oak  tree, 
starting  on  one  side  and  working  through  to  the 
other.  Those  little  gray  sprites  literally  combed 
the  foliage  of  that  tree-top  for  insects,  almost  leaf 
by  leaf.  It  was  done  so  quietly  that  only  a  watchful 
eye  would  have  noticed  it.  Many  other  times,  how- 
ever, I  have  watched  warblers  hunting  through 
foliage  with  a  thoroughness  that  is  highly  gratify- 
ing to  a  hater  of  noxious  insects. 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS          55 

There  are  five  groups  of  birds  of  special  value  to 
us  because  of  the  insects  they  consume;  and  they 
will  be  named  in  what  we  believe  to  be  the  order  of 
their  importance.  They  are: 

The  song-birds, 

The  tree-climbers, 

The  swallows  and  swifts, 

The  shore-birds, 

The  grouse  and  quail. 

To  these  are  to  be  added  a  number  of  miscella- 
neous species  of  special  value,  such  as  the  goat- 
suckers, certain  small  hawks,  and  a  few  ducks, 
egrets,  herons  and  ibises. 

The  Song-Birds  of  themselves  alone  form  a 
mighty  host.  The  great  family  of  Warblers  heads 
the  list,  both  in  number  of  species  and  in  static  effi- 
ciency. Except  the  humming-birds,  they  are  the 
smallest  of  the  passerine  order,  and  the  forms  and 
colors  of  many  of  the  species  are  so  very  inconspicu- 
ous that  only  the  sharp  eye  will  notice  their  tiny 
gray  forms  as  they  quietly  flit  or  glide,  a  yard  at 
each  move,  through  the  foliage  that  they  are  comb- 
ing out.  Their  work  is  mostly  in  the  tops  of  the 
trees.  The  high- water  mark  in  insect  destruction 
is  reached  by  these  birds.  Bulletin  No.  44  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture  gives  the  results  of  an 
exhaustive  examination  of  3,398  warbler  stomachs, 
from  seventeen  species,  and  the  result  shows  95 
per  cent  of  insect  food, — mostly  bad  insects,  too, — 


56  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

and  5  per  cent  of  vegetable  food.  What  more  than 
that  can  any  forester  ask  of  a  bird? 

The  Baltimore  Oriole  stands  very  high  as  a 
destroyer  of  insects;  and  incidentally  its  nest  is 
the  most  wonderful  example  of  bird  architecture  to 
be  found  in  North  America.  In  May,  insects  make 
up  90  per  cent  of  the  food  of  this  bird.  For  the 
entire  year,  insects  constitute  83.4  per  cent,  and 
vegetable  food  only  16.6  per  cent  of  its  bill  of  fare. 

The  Meadow-Lark  is  one  of  the  most  valuable 
of  the  birds  that  persistently  frequent  farming 
regions.  During  the  insect  season,  90  per  cent  of 
its  food  consists  of  insects,  and  during  the  year  as 
a  whole,  insects  make  up  73  per  cent. 

Even  the  Crow  Blackbird,  with  a  reputation  not 
of  the  best,  finds  27  per  cent  of  its  food  in  the  ranks 
of  our  insect  enemies,  and  it  has  been  fully  ac- 
quitted of  the  ancient  charge  of  nest-robbing. 

Perhaps  the  most  interesting  single  exhibit  in 
all  the  long  list  of  good  services  of  insectivorous 
birds  is  that  which  brings  together  the  known 
enemies  and  destroyers  of  the  devastating  cotton- 
boll  weevil.  This  is  really  a  southern  exhibit  of 
northern  birds,  and  directly  concerns  half  a  dozen 
states  of  the  Gulf  coast  of  the  South,  states  which 
we  long  have  been  earnestly  exhorting  to  consider 
the  economic  value  of  birds,  and  stop  within  their 
borders  the  slaughter  of  the  crop-protecting  species. 

The  list  of  birds  that  wage  war  on  the  cotton-boll 
weevil  contains  fifty-two  species,  some  of  which 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS          57 

make  a  specialty  of  the  weevil,  while  others  take  it 
incidentally,  in  the  course  of  each  day's  work.  The 
list  is  far  too  long  to  quote  in  full,  but  to  show  the 
gallant  manner  in  which  a  great  number  of  bird 
families,  and  orders  also,  are  endeavoring  to  do 
their  part  in  the  weevil  warfare,  we  will  offer  a  few 
items  from  the  list.  We  notice  the  following 
species:  six  orioles,  six  sparrows,  one  goatsucker, 
one  martin,  five  swallows,  and  various  fly-catchers, 
wrens,  blackbirds,  the  killdeer  plover,  titlark, 
meadow-lark  and  quail.  Of  these  birds,  the  martin, 
swallows  and  nighthawk  capture  the  weevils  while 
they  are  flying  high  in  the  air;  the  song-birds  take 
them  from  the  cotton  plants,  and  the  quail  and 
meadow-lark  glean  them  near  the  ground.  A 
farmer  of  Beeville,  Texas,  once  reported  as  fol- 
lows :  "The  bob- whites  shot  in  this  vicinity  had  their 
crops  filed  with  the  boll- weevils."  Another  Texas 
farmer  reported  his  "cotton-fields  full  of  quail,  and 
an  entire  absence  of  weevils." 

And  yet,  in  spite  of  all  this,  I  received  not  long 
since,  from  Texas,  a  photograph  showing  a  large 
automobile  almost  concealed  from  end  to  end  by  a 
thick  mantle  of  dead  quail. 

For  a  change  of  scenery,  let  us  glance  for  a 
moment  at  the  bird  enemies  of  the  codling-moth, 
the  greatest  destroyer  of  northern  apples.  This  list 
of  thirty-six  species  also  shows  a  great  variety  of 
birds  on  one  particular  firing-line,  in  which  several 
different  orders  and  thirteen  families  are  repre- 


58  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

sented.  Consider  this  array  of  birds  that  devour 
the  larvae  of  the  codling-moth  to  an  important 
extent:  six  species  of  woodpeckers,  two  of  fly- 
catchers, three  jays,  two  blackbirds,  one  oriole,  two 
sparrows,  two  warblers,  six  chickadees,  nuthatches 
and  creepers,  one  towhee,  one  cardinal,  one  king- 
bird, one  grosbeak,  one  bunting,  one  swallow,  a 
kinglet,  bush-tit,  robin  and  bluebird. 

In  some  places  these  birds  have  been  credited 
with  having  destroyed  from  66  to  85  per  cent  of 
the  hibernating  codling-moth  larvae. 

But  we  must  return  to  the  consideration  of  the 
other  important  groups  of  insect-eating  birds. 
Undoubtedly  every  student  of  forestry  will  be  more 
interested  in  the  work  of  Group  No.  2,  the  tree- 
climbing  birds,  than  in  any  other,  because  nearly 
every  member  of  that  group  is  itself  a  forest  con- 
servator of  long  standing.  It  is  at  all  times  a  great 
pleasure  to  consider  the  woodpeckers,  nuthatches, 
chickadees  and  creepers. 

Of  all  man's  numerous  feathered  friends  and 
allies,  the  woodpeckers  appeal  to  me  most  strongly. 
I  admire  the  courage  which  prompts  them  to  stay 
with  us  throughout  the  long  and  dreary  winter,  and 
take  their  chances  of  finding  food  and  shelter.  I 
admire  both  the  indomitable  industry  and  the 
mechanical  skill  with  which  they  dig  into  the  bark, 
and  even  the  trunk-wood  of  trees,  in  grim  pursuit 
of  the  insects  that  need  to  be  destroyed.  The 
woodpecker  is  a  true  sportsman,  not  an  angler. 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS          59 

He  does  not  wait  upon  the  convenience  of  the 
game,  but  he  goes  after  it, — digging,  gouging  and 
drilling  until  the  enemy  is  finally  brought  to  bay, 
impaled  on  a  tongue  that  is  a  living  spear  of  many 
barbs  and  dragged  forth  to  its  doom. 

It  is  the  woodpecker  that  stays  with  us  in 
November  and  sticks  to  his  job  whence  all  but  him 
have  fled.  When  in  midwinter  you  slowly  plow 
your  way  through  a  foot  of  snow  in  the  silent  and 
desolated  woods,  and  hear  overhead  the  sound  of 
digging  and  gouging  in  wood,  you  know  that  you 
are  not  wholly  alone.  Watch  for  falling  chips,  then 
look  aloft,  and  you  will  see  a  downy  or  hairy  wood- 
pecker busily  working  away  on  an  insect-ridden 
area  of  tree-trunk,  doing  work  for  you  and  me. 
When  a  woodpecker  beats  a  rolling  tattoo  on  the 
hard  outer  shell  of  a  dead  limb,  filling  a  quarter- 
mile  circle  with  marvelously  rapid  sound  waves,  he 
is  not  then  digging  for  insects.  He  is  showing  off. 
He  is  playing  to  the  galleries,  literally,  and  en- 
deavoring to  attract  a  mate.  When  he  really 
works,  he  wastes  no  time  in  theatrical  drumming, 
and  you  must  listen  sharply  in  order  to  locate  him. 

One  of  the  permanent  regrets  of  my  life  is  that 
nature  has  not  yet  produced  for  the  hardwood 
forests  of  North  America  a  woodpecker  as  large 
as  a  condor,  with  a  steel-tipped  beak  that  can  suc- 
cessfully drill  through  and  split  open  the  bark  of 
the  shell-bark  hickory,  and  bring  the  hickory-bark 
borer  to  justice. 


60  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

The  Downy  Woodpecker  is  one  of  the  smaller 
of  our  North  American  species,  but  of  insect 
destroyers  it  is  literally  the  little  giant.  Seventy- 
four  per  cent  of  its  food  consists  of  insects  injurious 
to  trees,  and  25  per  cent  only  is  of  vegetable  origin. 
The  Hairy  Woodpecker  is  a  close  rival  of  the 
downy,  in  size,  color,  habits  and  dynamic  force.  Its 
official  record  is  68  per  cent  of  insect  food.  Both 
these  species  remain  in  this  region  throughout  the 
year. 

After  the  woodpeckers,  the  nuthatches  and  brown 
creepers  render  valuable  service  to  trees  by  going 
over  their  trunks  inch  by  inch,  picking  off  and 
devouring  the  scale-insects,  bark-lice  and  any  other 
surface  pests  that  can  be  captured  without  digging. 
Their  slender  beaks  are  like  tiny  forceps  for  all 
crevices,  but  they  are  totally  unfit  for  the  gouge 
and  gimlet  work  in  which  the  woodpecker  excels. 

The  pert  little  Black-Capped  Chickadee  also 
lives  with  us  all  winter,  and  it  seems  to  be  a  bird  of 
infinite  leisure.  Rarely  will  you  see  it  at  work. 
When  you  approach,  it  devotes  all  its  time  to  visit- 
ing with  you,  and  so  long  as  you  remain  near  it,  its 
interest  in  you  never  flags.  Inasmuch  as  it  feeds 
upon  tree-inhabiting  insects,  it  is  certain  that  it 
performs  its  small  share  of  tree-protection  work. 

In  view  of  the  very  great  value  of  the  wood- 
peckers, their  steady  disappearance  has  been  noted 
with  increasing  regret  and  alarm.  Ten  years  ago, 
these  birds  were  far  more  numerous  in  southern 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS  61 

New  York  than  they  now  are.  I  am  quite  certain 
that  their  disappearance  has  been  caused  by  the 
slaughter  of  them  for  food,  in  the  North  by  the 
Italians,  and  in  the  South  by  negroes.  In  October, 
1905,  two  special  game  wardens  of  the  New  York 
Zoological  Society  arrested  in  the  northern  part  of 
New  York  City  two  Italian  guerrillas  of  destruc- 
tion who  had  in  their  possession  forty-three  insec- 
tivorous birds,  five  of  which  were  woodpeckers. 

Now  that  the  federal  migratory  bird  law  is  in 
force,  and  the  strong  hand  of  the  national  govern- 
ment is  to  be  put  forth  everywhere  in  behalf  of  such 
birds  as  these,  we  are  given  new  hope  for  the 
stoppage  of  the  slaughter  of  our  most  useful  birds, 
and  the  return  of  the  millions  that  have  vanished. 

The  group  of  Martins  and  Swallows  forms  a 
clearly  cut  avian  order,  every  member  of  which  is 
a  potent  force  in  insect  destruction.  Like  the  night- 
hawk,  they  operate  in  mid-air,  chasing  flying  insects 
in  full  flight,  and  devouring  them  on  the  wing. 
They  operate  in  a  field  of  activity  that  is  inaccessible 
to  man,  and  the  marvelous  perfection  with  which 
they  perform  their  special  function  is  almost 
enough  to  compel  us  to  go  back  to  the  old  belief  in 
special  creation. 

The  insectivorous  habits  of  the  martins  and  the 
swallows  have  long  been  known.  Even  the  dullest 
swamp-mucker  who  ever  carried  a  gun  could  not 
by  any  possibility  shut  his  eyes  and  his  brain  to  the 
spectacle  presented  by  these  graceful  birds  hunting 


62  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

insects  in  mid- air,  or  long  remain  in  ignorance  of 
their  food  habits.  In  the  South,  the  martins  and 
swallows  are  among  the  most  useful  and  valuable 
of  all  birds  in  the  destruction  of  the  cotton-boll 
weevil.  It  is  their  peculiar  function  to  catch  the 
weevils  as  they  make  long  flights,  when  leaving  the 
cotton-fields  in  search  of  hiding-places  in  which  to 
winter,  or  more  congenial  spots  in  which  to  con- 
tinue their  work  of  devastation. 

In  view  of  all  this,  does  it  not  seem  positively 
incredible  that  intelligent  white  men  in  the  South, 
men  who  can  read  and  write,  and  who  popularly 
are  classed  as  "sportsmen,"  can  be  so  stupid  and 
so  wicked  as  to  shoot  purple  martins  as  "game"! 
And  yet  it  is  reported  that  throughout  sections  of 
the  South,  the  shooting  of  the  martin  is  (or  until 
recently  has  been)  a  common  practice.  Probably 
this  is  the  reason  why  the  purple  martin  is  now  so 
rare  in  the  North,  and  survives  in  only  a  few 
localities.  Over  thousands  of  square  miles  of  its 
former  summer  home  it  is  extinct.  It  is  such  exas- 
perating doings  as  these  that  have  driven  some 
of  us  into  the  ranks  of  the  so-called  wild-life 
"fanatics,"  there  to  wage  ceaseless  warfare  against 
the  abominable  practices  of  the  guerrillas  of 
destruction. 

Fortunately  all  species  of  the  martins  and 
swallows  are  migratory,  and  our  hope  for  their 
survival  is  now  renewed  by  the  migratory  bird  law. 

The  Shore-Birds. — We  now  have  reached  the 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS          63 

order  of  shore-birds,  concerning  which  a  strange 
condition  now  exists.  Forty  years  ago,  aye,  even 
thirty  years  ago,  many  members  of  this  group  of 
sixty  conspicuous  bird  species  were  scattered 
throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  our  country 
east  of  the  great  plains  and  west  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada  Mountains.  The  jack-snipe,  woodcock, 
killdeer  plover,  the  curlews,  dowitchers  and  others 
spread  from  the  Atlantic  coast  to  Nebraska  and 
Kansas,  and  everyone  knew  them. 

To-day,  in  practical  effect,  the  shore-birds  of  the 
United  States  are  limited  to  a  remnant  along  the 
Atlantic  shore  line,  and  another  remnant  along  the 
Pacific  coast.  At  long  intervals  between,  in  little 
pockets  as  it  were,  a  few  snipe  and  woodcock  still 
survive,  but  as  representatives  of  the  great  blanket 
of  shore-birds  that  once  was  spread  over  our  coun- 
try, they  do  not  amount  to  anything  more  than 
pitiful  samples.  To-day,  when  you  say  to  your 
neighbor  that  "our  shore-birds  are  vanishing,  and 
need  quick  protection,"  the  chances  are  that  he  will 
look  at  you  with  a  puzzled  expression,  and  ask  in 
all  sincerity,  "Just  what  are  shore-birds?"  This 
has  actually  occurred  repeatedly  in  my  experience 
during  the  past  two  years.  It  is  a  fact  that  to-day 
our  shore-birds  need  an  introduction  to  the  Ameri- 
can people  at  large,  their  natural  protectors. 

If  we  are  asked  to  describe  the  order  of  shore- 
birds,  in  a  few  words,  we  may  say  that  it  contains 
the  long-legged,  slender-billed,  plainly  colored 


64  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

birds  of  small  or  very  moderate  size,  that  frequent 
the  shores  of  all  bodies  of  open  water,  large  and 
small,  salt  and  fresh,  and  also  many  regions  of  open 
plains  and  prairies.  The  group  embraces  the 
plovers,  curlews,  sandpipers,  phalaropes,  avocets, 
dowitchers,  woodcock  and  snipe;  in  all  about  sixty 
North  American  species.  On  the  farms  and  prairies 
of  the  eastern  half  of  the  United  States,  the  species 
most  commonly  seen  thirty  years  ago  were  the 
killdeer  plover,  jack-snipe  and  curlew. 

Until  about  four  years  ago,  the  shore-birds  were 
regarded  as  of  value  only  for  food,  and  on  that 
basis  they  have  long  been  relentlessly  pursued.  In 
1911,  a  circular  issued  by  the  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, written  by  Prof.  W.  L.  McAtee,  brought 
prominently  to  notice  the  astonishing  fact  that  the 
shore-birds  are  of  immense  value  as  insect  de- 
stroyers, performing  services  that  are  not  per- 
formed by  any  other  birds.  This  revelation  has 
completely  changed  the  status  of  these  universally 
persecuted  birds,  and  created  a  demand  for  their 
adequate  protection. 

From  Professor  McAtee's  circular  No.  79,  we 
quote  the  following  significant  paragraph: 

Throughout  the  eastern  United  States,  shore-birds  are  fast 
vanishing.  While  formerly  numerous  species  swarmed  along 
the  Atlantic  coast  and  in  the  prairie  regions,  many  of  them 
have  been  so  reduced  that  extermination  seems  imminent.  The 
black-bellied  plover,  or  beetle-head,  which  occurred  along  the 
Atlantic  seaboard  in  great  numbers  years  ago,  is  now  seen 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS          65 

only  as  a  straggler.  The  golden  plover,  once  exceedingly 
abundant  east  of  the  Great  Plains,  is  now  rare.  Vast  hordes  of 
long-billed  dowitchers  formerly  wintered  in  Louisiana;  now 
they  occur  only  in  infrequent  flocks  of  only  a  half  dozen  or 
less.  The  Eskimo  curlew  within  the  last  decade  has  probably 
been  exterminated,  and  the  other  curlews  have  been  greatly 
reduced.  In  fact,  all  the  larger  species  of  shore-birds  have 
suffered  severely.  So  adverse  to  shore-birds  are  present  con- 
ditions, the  wonder  is  that  any  escape!  In  both  fall  and 
spring  they  are  shot  along  the  whole  route  of  their  migration, 
north  and  south.  Their  habit  of  decoying  readily  and  per- 
sistently, coming  back  in  flocks  to  the  decoys  again  and  again, 
in  spite  of  murderous  volleys,  greatly  lessens  their  chances  of 
escape.  .  .  .  Shore-birds  have  been  hunted  until  only  a 
remnant  of  their  once  vast  numbers  is  left.  Their  limited 
powers  of  reproduction,  coupled  with  the  natural  vicissitudes 
of  the  breeding  period,  make  their  increase  slow,  and  peculiarly 
expose  them  to  danger  of  extermination. 

In  the  struggle  that  was  made  for  the  passage  of 
the  federal  migratory  bird  law,  the  claims  of  the 
shore-birds,  and  the  interests  benefited  by  them, 
were  strongly  set  forth.  A  demand  was  registered 
for  a  five-year  close  season  on  all  species  of  shore- 
birds  inhabiting  or  passing  through  the  United 
States.  This  demand  was  redoubled  after  the 
enactment  of  the  law,  and  while  the  detailed  regu- 
lations were  being  framed.  By  strongly  insisting 
upon  the  giving  of  the  whole  loaf,  fifty- four  out  of 
our  sixty  species  of  shore-birds  actually  did  secure 
the  five-year  period  of  protection  that  was  de- 
manded. The  species  left  open  to  slaughter  were 
the  woodcock,  jack-snipe,  greater  and  lesser  yellow- 


66  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

legs,  golden  plover  and  black-breasted  plover.  The 
unhappy  six,  one  of  them  already  so  rare  as  to  be 
out  of  the  reckoning,  were  literally  thrown  to  the 
lions  of  the  arena,  in  order  that  the  baffled  rage  of 
the  men  who  love  bird  slaughter  might  not  become 
too  great  for  the  nation  at  large  to  endure. 

Personally,  I  never  could  see  the  slightest  sport 
in  shooting  any  of  the  shore-birds  of  the  seashore; 
but  to  the  sandpiper  sportsmen  those  foolish  little 
birds  are  all  great  game.  Fancy,  if  you  please,  a 
grown  man  in  a  fifteen- dollar  hunting  suit,  carry- 
ing a  ten-dollar  gun  and  a  one-dollar  license,  shoot- 
ing tiny  sandpipers  as  "game,"  to  eat  as  "food"! 
It  is  difficult  to  imagine  the  frame  of  mind  or  the 
code  of  ethics  of  the  typical  sandpiper  sportsman; 
but  the  class  exists  and  persists,  and  it  is  to  be 
reckoned  with. 

To  one  who  never  has  paused  to  consider  the 
economic  value  of  the  shore-birds — and  this  subject 
is  so  very  new  there  is  much  excuse  for  unf amiliar- 
ity  with  it — the  value  of  these  birds  as  insect 
destroyers  is  positively  astounding.  I  regret  that 
it  is  impossible  to  offer  here  more  than  a  brief  and 
inadequate  impression  of  that  value.  The  shore- 
bird  diet  includes  quantities  of  such  notorious  insect 
pests  as  the  following:  Rocky  Mountain  locust,  and 
other  injurious  grasshoppers;  army- worms,  cut- 
worms, cabbage-worms,  the  cotton-worm,  cotton- 
boll  weevil,  clover-leaf  weevil,  clover-root  curculio, 
rice-weevil,  corn  bill-bugs,  wireworms,  corn-leaf 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS          67 

beetles,  cucumber  beetles,  white  grubs,  Texas  fever- 
tick,  horse-flies  and  mosquitoes.  Of  mosquitoes, 
the  shore-birds  are  the  most  important  bird  enemies 
known  to  us. 

Let  us  take,  by  way  of  illustration,  a  short  series 
of  cases  reported  by  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, involving  the  destruction  of  the  dreaded 
Rocky  Mountain  locust  in  the  state  of  Nebraska, 
a  region  of  rich  farms  and  artificial  groves. 

9  killdeer  plover  stomachs  contained  an  average  of  28  locusts 

each. 
11    semi-palmated  plover   stomachs   contained  an   average  of 

38  locusts  each. 
16  mountain    plover   stomachs    contained    an    average   of    45 

locusts  each. 
11   jack-snipe  stomachs  contained  an  average  of  37  locusts 

each. 
22  upland  plover  stomachs  contained  an  average  of  36  locusts 

each. 

10  long-billed  curlew  stomachs  contained  an  average  of  48 

locusts  each. 

The  conditions  described  above  were  the  result 
of  an  unusual  abundance  of  the  locusts  preyed 
upon.  At  all  times,  wherever  grasshoppers  are 
available,  they  are  sought  by  shore-birds  of  at  least 
twenty- four  species,  as  follows:  seven  plovers,  six 
sandpipers,  two  snipes,  one  phalarope,  the  avocet, 
stilt,  woodcock,  dowitcher,  long-billed  curlew,  god- 
wit,  yellow-legs  and  turnstone. 

Nine  species  of  shore-birds  eat  mosquitoes. 


68  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

Eight  species  devour  the  larvae  of  the  crane  flies 
that  are  so  destructive  to  grass  and  wheat. 

The  beautiful  and  once  very  common  killdeer 
plover  and  the  spotted  sandpiper  feed  upon  the 
army-worm  and  other  pests  of  the  grain-fields. 

Cutworms  are  eaten  by  the  avocet,  woodcock,  two 
sandpipers  and  two  plovers ;  and  one  of  the  latter, 
the  killdeer,  destroys  the  cotton-worm,  cotton  cut- 
worm, tobacco-worm  and  tomato-worm.  The  de- 
testable bill-bug,  one  of  the  special  enemies  of  corn, 
is  eaten  by  eight  species  of  shore-birds.  It  is 
reported  from  Corpus  Christi,  Texas,  that  upland 
plovers  are  industrious  in  following  the  plough,  and 
eating  the  grubs  that  destroy  garden  vegetables, 
corn  and  cotton  crops. 

An  observer  in  Fall  River,  Massachusetts,  has 
reported  the  following  facts  regarding  the  spotted 
sandpiper:  "Three  pairs  nested  in  a  young  orchard 
behind  my  house,  adjacent  to  my  garden.  I  did  not 
see  them  once  go  to  the  shore  for  food  (shore  about 
1,500  feet  away),  but  I  did  see  them  many  times 
make  faithful  search  of  my  garden  for  cutworms, 
spotted  squash-bugs  and  green  flies.  Cutworms 
and  cabbage- worms  were  their  special  prey.  After 
the  young  could  fly,  they  still  kept  at  work  in  my 
garden,  and  showed  no  inclination  to  go  to  the  shore 
until  about  August  15.  They  and  a  flock  of  quails 
just  over  the  wall  helped  me  wonderfully." 

And  yet,  let  us  add,  there  are  grown  men  in  this 
country,  tens  of  thousands  of  them,  who  think  it  is 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS          69 

sport  to  shoot  the  useful  spotted  sandpiper,  a  bird 
so  small  that  it  takes  at  least  four  of  them  to  make 
a  respectable  dinner  portion. 

I  am  still  claiming  that  every  species  of  shore- 
bird  in  America  now  is  entitled  to  at  least  a  five- 
year  close  season,  as  a  matter  of  justice,  common 
sense  and  common  decency.  I  regard  only  two 
species  of  shore-birds  as  legitimate  game,  at  any 
time,  even  when  they  are  generally  plentiful. 
These  are  the  woodcock  and  jack-snipe.  If  I  had 
my  will,  all  other  species  should  forever  be  immune 
from  slaughter;  first,  because  of  the  good  they  do; 
second,  because  of  the  element  of  interest  they  add 
to  shores  and  interior  lands;  and  third,  because  as 
game-birds  few  of  them  taste  good  and  the  quantity 
of  food  they  furnish  never  amounted  to  an  item 
worthy  of  serious  consideration. 

The  advocates  of  shore-bird  killing — and  there 
are  many — will  tell  us  that  "there  are  thousands  of 
them,"  of  various  species,  to  be  found  on  the  south 
shore  of  Long  Island,  and  elsewhere  on  the  Atlan- 
tic coast.  Last  spring  on  a  cold,  raw  and  rainy  day, 
a  shore-bird  sportsman  took  me  to  Great  South 
Bay,  during  the  spring  flight  northward.  It  was 
on  May  27.  In  spite  of  bad  weather  conditions  we 
steamed  to  and  fro,  in  and  out,  around  and  about 
through  that  great  watery  labyrinth  until  we  saw  at 
least  2,000  shore-birds,  of  nine  species.  Had  the 
day  been  fine  and  clear  we  would  undoubtedly  have 
seen  many  more. 


70  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

The  exhibition  was  gratifying,  not  because  there 
were  so  many  birds  that  a  single  gunner  would  have 
enough  birds  of  his  gun,  but  because  we  found  so 
much  seed  stock  for  the  bringing  back  of  those 
species.  But  mark  you  what  those  birds  repre- 
sented. They  represented  the  massing  together 
during  the  two,  three  or  four  weeks  of  the  annual 
migration  northward  to  their  breeding-grounds,  of 
a  very  considerable  portion  of  the  stock  of  shore- 
birds  of  our  whole  Atlantic  coast!  Those  birds,  as 
we  saw  them,  were  at  one  of  their  most  necessary 
resting-places  and  feeding-grounds, — an  area 
which  in  any  event  should  forever  be  to  them  a 
sanctuary  and  an  inviolable  refuge. 

The  remaining  shore-birds  of  North  America  are 
barely  sufficient  in  number  to  save  the  order  Limi- 
colse  as  a  whole  from  extermination  on  this  conti- 
nent. The  five-year  remedy  for  fifty- four  species 
has  been  applied  not  soon  enough  to  save  the 
Eskimo  curlew,  the  golden  plover,  and  possibly 
others.  But  the  regulation  that  went  into  effect 
on  October  1,  under  the  terms  of  the  federal  migra- 
tory bird  law,  is  a  long  step  in  the  right  direction. 
Without  it,  we  would  have  gone  on  vainly  appeal- 
ing to  the  various  states  until  all  the  birds  of  an 
entire  order  of  sixty  would  have  been  blotted  out, 
literally  before  the  eyes  of  the  friends  who  sought 
to  save  them. 

The  Upland  Game-Birds. — The  conservation  of 
our  upland  game-birds,  the  grouse  and  quail,  rests 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS          71 

on  two  widely  different  necessities.  The  grouse 
should  be  saved  and  increased  as  a  food  supply,  and 
the  bob- white  quail  should  be  protected  because  of 
its  value  as  a  destroyer  of  insects  and  the  seeds  of 
noxious  weeds.  Let  us  first  consider  the  quail, 
because  it  is  nearest. 

Probably  99  per  cent  of  the  farmers  of  this  coun- 
try, and  100  per  cent  of  the  sportsmen  and  gunners 
outside  New  York,  regard  the  common  Virginia 
Quail ,  or  Bob-White 3  as  a  bird  of  no  economic 
value  save  when  it  is  shot  and  eaten.  To  this  enor- 
mous army  of  enemies,  the  bird  is  only  a  question  of 
meat  ounces  on  the  table.  And  yet,  thanks  to  the 
painstaking  investigations  of  Mrs.  Nice,  of  Clark 
University,  and  Professor  Judd,  of  the  United 
States  Department  of  Agriculture,  we  now  know 
that  for  the  smaller  pests  of  the  farm  the  bob-white 
is  the  most  wonderful  engine  of  destruction  ever 
put  together  of  flesh  and  blood.  I  think  it  is  fairly 
beyond  question  that  of  all  the  birds  that  influence 
the  fortunes  of  the  farmers  and  fruit-growers  of 
North  America,  the  common  quail  is  the  most 
valuable! 

It  remains  on  the  farm  throughout  the  year. 
When  insects  are  most  numerous,  bob-white  de- 
votes to  them  his  entire  time.  He  destroys  them 
during  sixteen  to  eighteen  hours  of  the  summer  day. 
When  the  insects  are  gone,  he  turns  his  attention 
to  the  weeds  that  are  striving  to  seed  down  the 
farmer's  fields  for  another  year.  He  consumes,  as 


72  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

palatable  food,  the  seeds  of  129  species  of  weeds; 
and  the  quantity  that  one  bird  can  consume  in  one 
day  is  almost  beyond  belief.  Ten  thousand  seeds 
for  one  bird's  daily  ration  is  a  small  quantity,  and 
far  below  the  average  of  what  a  healthy  adult  bird 
requires.  To  kill  weeds  on  the  farm  costs  money, — 
hard  cash  that  the  farmer  has  earned  by  toil,  or 
labor  of  cash  value  which  he  himself  bestows.  Does 
the  average  farmer  ever  put  forth  any  strenuous 
efforts  to  protect  from  poachers  and  other  enemies 
the  quail  that  work  so  well  and  so  faithfully  for 
him?  The  exceptional  farmer  does;  the  average 
farmer  does  not. 

All  that  the  average  farmer  thinks  of  the  quail, 
even  those  in  his  own  coveys,  is  as  so  much  meat  for 
his  table. 

A  list  of  the  129  species  of  weeds  whose  seeds  are 
eaten  by  the  bob-white  looks  like  a  botanical  rogues' 
gallery.  Conspicuous  in  it  are  such  old  enemies  as 
the  pigweed,  smartweed,  beggar-tick,  foxtail,  bur- 
dock, barnyard  grass,  crab  grass,  ragweed  and 
plantain.  It  has  been  calculated  that  if  in  Virginia 
and  North  Carolina  there  were  four  bob- whites  to 
every  square  mile,  and  each  bird  ate  one  ounce  of 
weed  seeds  per  day,  from  September  1  to  April  30, 
the  total  amount  consumed  in  those  two  states 
would  be  1,341  tons. 

As  a  destroyer  of  insects  it  would  seem  that  the 
common  quail  deserves  the  first  place.  We  know  of 
no  other  species  whose  appetite  covers  so  wide  a 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS          73 

variety  of  insect  food.  It  is  known  that  this  bird 
consumes  145  different  species  of  insects,  and  the 
list  includes  all  the  notorious  insect  pests  of  the 
farm  and  orchard  save  the  few  that  live  and  work 
high  up,  beyond  the  reach  of  a  bird  that  lives  on  the 
ground.  However,  the  quail's  repertoire  includes 
the  codling-moth,  the  garden  caterpillars,  flies,  mos- 
quitoes, plant-lice,  cotton-boll  weevil  and  a  host 
of  others. 

While  it  is  impossible  to  take  time  to  name  many 
of  the  insect  species  involved,  we  can  offer  a  sum- 
mary of  the  quail's  insect  food,  as  follows : 

Grasshoppers    and   locusts 13  species 

Bugs 24  species 

Leaf-hoppers  and  plant-lice 6  species 

Moths,  caterpillars,  cutworms,  etc.     .      .      .19  species 

Flies 8  species 

Beetles          61  species 

Ants,  wasps  and  slugs 8  species 

Miscellaneous   species 6  species 


Total 145  species 

It  would  be  possible  to  go  on  at  greater  length, 
piling  fact  upon  fact,  to  demonstrate  the  value  of 
the  quail  to  the  farming  and  fruit-growing  inter- 
ests; but  why  burden  the  subject  with  unnecessary 
proof?  We  are  not  now  attempting  to  cover  the 
quail  situation  of  the  Pacific  coast,  which  for  vari- 
ous reasons  forms  a  chapter  by  itself,  and  needs  to 
be  considered  independently.  Regarding  the  situa- 


74  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

tion  everywhere  east  of  the  Rocky  Mountains, 
should  it  not  be  perfectly  clear  to  every  logical  mind 
that  the  only  rational  course  to  pursue  is  to  give  the 
bob-white  quail,  everywhere,  close  seasons  of  five 
or  ten  years,  or  until  they  become  so  numerous  as 
to  be  destructive  to  valuable  crops?  The  quail 
needs  a  million  champions;  but  instead  of  having 
them,  it  is  annually  beset  by  more  than  a  million 
gunners. 

Instead  of  universal  protection,  to-day  we  find 
only  three  states  maintaining  a  five-year  close  sea- 
son on  their  quail.  Those  states  are  New  York, 
Oklahoma  and  Kansas.  If  there  are  others  doing 
likewise,  I  have  overlooked  them.  Throughout 
fully  nine-tenths  of  the  range  of  the  quail,  it  is 
harassed  and  persecuted  by  men,  dogs,  automatic 
and  pump  guns,  automobiles  and  public  sentiment. 
In  Iowa  an  unwise  state  game  warden  blocked  the 
passage  of  a  five-year  protection  law  for  quail  on 
the  fantastic  ground  that  if  the  bill  should  become 
a  law,  the  sportsmen  of  the  state  of  Iowa  would  be 
so  furiously  angry  that  they  would  exterminate  all 
the  remaining  quail  in  revenge!  That  idea  may 
fairly  be  regarded  as  the  greatest  invention  of  the 
age  in  the  line  of  conservation. 

As  yet,  the  average  American  farmer  is  sound 
asleep  on  the  quail  question.  Whether  it  will  be 
possible  to  arouse  him,  and  induce  him  to  rise  in 
his  might  and  demand  long  protection  for  his  best 
feathered  friend,  is  now  a  question  before  the  house. 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS          75 

It  can  not  be  answered  by  a  roll-call,  but  it  could 
be  answered  by  vigorous  action. 

Our  treatment  of  the  grouse  of  the  East  and  the 
Middle  West  is  a  sore  subject.  Draw  a  line  around 
the  former  range  of  our  old  friend,  the  pinnated 
grouse  or  prairie-chicken,  and  you  will  include  the 
hog-and-corn  area  of  the  United  States.  That,  also, 
is  the  area  of  the  most  complete  local  extermination 
of  wild  life,  both  birds  and  mammals!  It  includes 
the  states  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Iowa,  Missouri, 
Kansas,  Nebraska,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee.  In 
that  hog-and-corn  belt  you  will  find  more  spring 
shooting,  more  sale  of  game,  more  extermination 
and  less  real  wild-life  protection  than  in  any  other 
area  of  the  United  States. 

On  the  island  of  Mauritius,  it  was  swine  that 
exterminated  the  dodo.  In  the  United  States, 
hogs  and  game  extermination  still  go  hand  in  hand. 
Since  the  days  of  the  dodo,  however,  a  new  species 
of  swine  has  been  developed.  It  is  now  widely 
known  as  the  game-hog,  and  its  existence  and  its 
activities  have  been  officially  recognized  by  both 
bench  and  bar.  Although  the  name  is  rude  and 
jarring,  it  is  now  a  necessary  term;  and  it  has  come 
to  stay. 

Take  the  case  of  Ohio  as  a  horrible  example, — a 
state  once  abundantly  stocked  with  a  great  variety 
and  a  great  number  of  game  birds  and  mammals. 
I  think  that  Ohio  comes  the  nearest  of  all  the  states 
to  being  gameless.  With  but  slight  exceptions,  her 


76  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

laws  are  not  wholly  bad;  but  in  the  breasts  of  her 
citizens  the  desire  to  kill  is  so  strong,  and  the 
majority  of  her  gunners  are  so  thoroughly  selfish 
about  their  so-called  "rights"  to  kill,  that  the  game 
has  ruthlessly  been  swept  away  according  to  law! 
The  state  is  a  striking  example  of  the  deplorable 
results  of  legalized  slaughter.  Her  sportsmen  will 
not  have  a  law  forbidding  the  use  in  hunting  of  the 
automatic  shot-gun.  Oh,  no!  They  say,  "Limit 
the  bag,  shorten  the  open  season,  and  the  species  of 
the  gun  won't  matter." 

As  an  answer  to  that  proposition,  we  will  file  this 
list  of  game  birds  and  mammals  that  already  have 
been  totally  exterminated  in  the  state  of  Ohio : 

Pinnated  grouse,  Elk, 

Passenger  pigeon,  Black  bear, 

Wild  turkey,  Puma, 

Pileated  woodpecker,  Lynx, 

Carolina  parrakeet,  Gray  wolf, 

Bison,  Beaver, 

White-tailed  deer,  Otter. 

Eight  species  of  valuable  birds  are  reported  as 
"threatened  with  extinction"  in  the  near  future; 
but  we  will  not  take  time  to  name  them.  One  of 
them  is  the  quail. 

But  to  return  to  the  grouse. 

Pinnated  Grouse. — Unless  there  is  a  swift  and 
complete  change  in  the  treatment  accorded  the 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS          77 

remnants  of  pinnated  grouse,  sage-grouse  and 
sharp-tailed  grouse,  many  men  now  in  this  audience 
will  live  to  see  the  day  when  all  three  of  those  fine 
species  will  become  totally  extinct  throughout  this 
country.  Their  extinguishment  at  this  late  day 
through  human  greed  and  selfishness  will  be  a 
national  disgrace,  second  to  the  disgrace  of  the 
American  bison  only  because  the  birds  are  of  less 
importance  to  the  country  at  large. 

To  the  states  that  still  possess  remnant  flocks  of 
pinnated  grouse — notably  Minnesota,  the  Dakotas, 
Nebraska,  Kansas  and  Oklahoma — we  have  ap- 
pealed for  a  five-year  close  season;  but  thus  far  in 
vain.  The  noble-minded,  big-hearted  "sports- 
men" (!)  of  those  states  refuse  to  accede  to  the 
demand,  and  the  lawmakers,  who  care  a  hundred 
times  more  about  reelection  than  for  state  game, 
are  afraid  to  act  against  the  wishes  of  the  so-called 
"leading  organizations  of  sportsmen." 

In  the  first  instance,  the  upland  game-birds  of 
the  Middle  West  were  slaughtered,  wholesale,  by 
market-hunters  in  the  absence  of  law.  Now  they 
are  being  slaughtered  and  exterminated  by  "sports- 
men" gunners  in  accordance  with  law, — because 
the  open  seasons  continue,  and  because  there  are 
about  ten  guns  and  one  hundred  cartridges  against 
each  surviving  bird.  The  gunners  and  state  law- 
makers of  the  Middle  West  sullenly  refuse  to  hear 
and  heed  the  lesson  of  the  heath-hen  or  eastern 
prairie-chicken,  which  reached  a  point  so  low  that 


78  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

finally  even  ten-year  close  seasons  could  not  bring 
it  back. 

Without  a  quick  and  thorough  reform,  that  his- 
tory is  destined  to  be  reenacted  between  the  Missis- 
sippi and  the  Rocky  Mountains,  and  at  least  three 
fine  species  will  totally  disappear  even  while  the 
world  is  crying  "Shame!"  It  is  useless  to  talk  of 
the  value  of  those  three  grouse  with  their  annihila- 
tion actually  taking  place  before  our  eyes!  The 
situation  is  too  exasperating  for  words.  We  la- 
bored hard  with  the  Department  of  Agriculture  to 
have  the  pinnated  grouse — which  is  a  migratory 
bird — included  in  the  protection  of  the  federal 
migratory  bird  law;  but  the  hostility  of  the  game- 
killers  of  the  pinnated  grouse  territory  was  feared 
so  much  that  for  the  present  that  grouse  is  left  to 
its  fate  at  the  hands  of  the  states  that  it  has  the  mis- 
fortune to  inhabit. 

The  eastern  ruffed  grouse,  often  miscalled  the 
"pheasant,"  is  the  only  grouse  of  the  United  States 
concerning  which  we  can  at  present  indulge  even 
a  ray  of  hope.  It  inhabits  timber  and  brush  and 
rocky  hillsides,  it  does  not  live  in  large  flocks  like 
the  grouse  of  prairie  countries,  and  it  can  not  be 
run  down  with  dogs,  camp-wagons  and  automobiles 
as  the  prairie  grouse  are.  It  is  damaged  during  the 
breeding  season  by  roaming  bird-dogs,  but  cats  do 
not  seriously  affect  it,  and  a  bad  shot  seldom  kills 
it.  It  is  to  other  grouse  what  the  white-tailed  deer 
is  to  other  hoofed  game — a  timber-loving  skulker 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS          79 

that  will  live  longest  because  it  knows  best  how  to 
hide  and  to  escape  when  attacked.  It  is  now  esti- 
mated by  a  Connecticut  state  game  commissioner 
that  during  1913  the  27,000  licensed  gunners  of 
Connecticut  killed  60,000  ruffed  grouse. 

Hawks  and  Owls. — It  is  impossible  to  complete 
a  discussion  of  the  North  American  birds  useful  to 
man  without  an  adequate  reference  to  the  services 
of  certain  birds  of  prey. 

Men  who  never  have  fought  a  numerous  and 
aggressive  population  of  rats  and  mice  do  not  know 
the  bitterness  of  that  unequal  warfare ;  but 

"  The  toad  beneath  the  harrow  knows 
Exactly  where  each  tooth-point  goes !" 

The  rat  works  while  men  sleep;  and  everything 
that  he  can  chew  is  open  to  destruction  by  him. 
When  grain,  fruit  and  vegetables  fail,  or  pall  upon 
the  murine  palate,  the  rat  joyously  attacks  eggs, 
poultry  and  meat  supplies  generally.  The  making 
of  farm  products  safe  from  hungry  rats  is  a  mad- 
dening proposition.  What,  then,  should  be  the 
attitude  of  every  farmer  toward  a  bird  like  the  barn 
owl,  that  lives  on  mice  and  rats,  and  is  abundantly 
able,  by  nature,  to  beat  the  nocturnal  destroyers  at 
their  own  game?  We  would  say  in  answer  that 
Strix  flammea,  not  Ceres,  should  be  the  patron 
saint  of  the  farmer,  and  that  in  his  eyes  the  barn  owl 
should  be  ten  times  more  sacred  than  the  peacock  is 
to  a  Hindoo. 


80  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

Forty  years  ago,  if  tradition  speaks  truly,  no  one 
would  easily  have  believed  it  possible  that  any  of 
the  hawks  and  owls  of  the  United  States  were 
otherwise  than  highly  injurious  to  man,  and  there- 
fore deserving  of  instant  death.  But  we  live  and 
learn.  The  shot-guns,  scalpels  and  microscopes  of 
the  Department  of  Agriculture  have  placed  the 
hawks  and  owls,  all  save  five  or  six,  in  an  entirely 
different  class  from  that  which  had  been  theirs  from 
the  beginning.  To-day  it  is  only  the  benighted 
states  of  America  that  fail  to  protect  the  hawks 
^nd  owls, — all  save  a  very  few  species  that  will  be 
considered,  on  a  later  occasion,  as  pests. 

The  valuable  services  rendered  by  the  useful 
hawks  and  owls  consist  in  the  destruction  of  rats, 
mice,  gophers,  shrews  and  moles.  Those  small  and 
elusive  mammals  must  be  kept  in  check  by  their 
natural  enemies,  especially  the  nocturnal  birds  of 
prey  and  the  small  carnivorous  mammals, 

By  way  of  illustration,  take  the  record  of  a 
famous  pair  of  Barn  Owls  that  once  nested  in  one 
of  the  towers  of  the  Smithsonian  building  at  Wash- 
ington. Conditions  were  such  that  the  pellets  of 
indigestible  animal  matter  disgorged  by  those  two 
birds  were  accidentally  preserved  for  an  entire  year, 
and  thereby  yielded  a  valuable  record.  Two  hun- 
dred pellets  were  collected,  consisting  of  bones,  hair 
and  feathers,  and  it  was  found  that  they  contained 
453  skulls  which  represented  the  following  mam- 
mals: 225  meadow  mice,  179  house  mice,  20  rats,  2 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS  81 

pine  mice,  20  shrews,  6  jumping  mice  and  1  mole. 
The  collection  contained  the  skull  of  one  bird  only, 
a  vesper  sparrow. 

The  Long-Eared  Owl  has  a  record  for  rats  and 
mice  very  similar  to  that  of  the  barn  owl ;  scores  of 
mice,  rats  and  shrews  destroyed,  but  alas !  too  many 
birds,  also!  Its  nearest  relative,  the  Short-Eared 
Owl,  is  a  bird  of  precisely  similar  habits. 

Formerly  the  Red-Shouldered  and  Red-Tailed 
Hawks  were  universally  known  as  "chicken 
hawks,"  hated  accordingly  by  the  farmer  and  shot 
whenever  possible.  Now  it  is  known  that  those 
hawks  rarely  feed  on  domestic  poultry,  and  that 
they  devour  so  many  wild  mice  and  rats  that  they 
are  decidedly  beneficial  to  man  and  worthy  of 
protection. 

In  1885,  the  rural  feeling  against  hawks  and 
owls  reached  high- water  mark  in  Pennsylvania.  In 
response  to  the  demands  of  the  farmers  of  the  state, 
the  Pennsylvania  legislature  enacted  a  law  provid- 
ing a  bounty  of  fifty  cents  each  for  the  heads  of 
hawks  and  owls.  Naturally,  great  slaughter  of 
these  birds  ensued.  In  two  years,  180,000  scalps 
had  been  brought  in  and  $90,000  had  been  paid  out 
for  them. 

The  awakening  came  even  more  swiftly  than  the 
ornithologists  expected.  By  the  end  of  two  years 
from  the  enactment  of  "the  hawk  law,"  the  farmers 
found  their  fields  and  orchards  thoroughly  overrun 
by  destructive  mice,  rats  and  insects;  and  again 


82  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

they  went  clamoring  to  the  legislature,  this  time  for 
the  quick  repeal  of  the  law.  With  all  possible  haste 
this  was  brought  about;  but  it  was  estimated  by 
competent  judges  that  in  damages  to  their  crops 
"the  fool  hawk  law"  cost  the  farmers  of  the  state  of 
Pennsylvania  more  than  $2,000,000. 

The  moral  of  this  episode  is  that  it  is  very  danger- 
ous to  meddle  with  the  balance  of  nature  by  a 
wholesale  destruction  of  hawks  and  owls.  There 
are  a  very  few  species  that  deserve  to  be  destroyed, 
but  those  are  now  so  difficult  to  find  and  so  diffi- 
cult to  identify  at  gunshot  distance,  that  only  an 
intelligent  hunter  is  competent  to  undertake  their 
destruction  and  guarantee  no  killings  by  mistake. 
To-day  the  really  destructive  species  are  almost  a 
negligible  factor  in  wild-life  economy,  and  I  encour- 
age no  one  save  a  bird  man  to  go  hunting  for  the 
objectionable  hawks  and  owls.  There  is  no  longer 
any  real  necessity  to  provide  bounties  for  the 
destruction  of  the  few  and  now  rare  species  of 
hawks  that  do  more  harm  than  good  and  that 
deserve  destruction  when  they  are  numerous. 

In  conclusion,  the  economic  value  of  all  the 
insect-eating  and  most  of  the  rodent-eating  birds  is 
so  great  that  every  friend  of  our  crops  and  forests 
should  insist,  in  season  and  out  of  season,  boldly  and 
confidently,  upon  the  absolute  and  inviolate  protec- 
tion of  all  species  save  the  few  admitted  to  be  pests 
deserving  destruction.  This  proposition  is  not  open 
to  argument. 


ECONOMIC  VALUE  OF  OUR  BIRDS          83 

The  American  people  as  a  whole  have  too  long 
played  fast  and  loose  with  their  wild  life.  Even 
with  our  good  new  laws,  I  warn  every  college  man 
in  America  that  the  situation  of  the  birds  of  the 
United  States — all  save  the  water-fowl — is  now 
desperate.  It  is  gravely  questionable  whether  it 
now  is  possible  to  bring  back  the  vanished  millions 
and  once  more  enjoy  their  valuable  cooperation  in 
our  endless  war  of  self-defense  against  the  insect 
world. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME  BIRDS  AND 
MAMMALS 

After  30,000  years  of  wild-life  slaughter,  if  we 
date  back  to  the  cave  men  of  southern  France  who 
hunted  and  drew  pictures  of  the  mammoths  and 
rhinoceroses  of  Europe,  man  at  last  is  beginning 
to  consider  the  rational  treatment  of  the  world's 
stock  of  game  birds  and  quadrupeds.  Perhaps  one 
man  out  of  every  thousand — to  make  a  very  high 
estimate — will  now  admit  that  the  finest  of  the 
beasts  and  birds  and  fishes  have  some  rights  which 
predatory  man  should  respect.  It  must  be  ad- 
mitted, however,  that  throughout  the  world  at  large, 
at  least  99  per  cent  of  the  consideration  that  is  now 
accorded  wild  animals  is  based  on  thoroughly  selfish 
grounds  and  the  desire  for  future  benefits  at  the 
cost  of  their  lives. 

We  are  certain  that  there  is  now  in  the  United 
States  more  genuine  sentimental  regard  for  wild 
life  than  can  be  found  in  any  other  country.  In  all 
the  campaign  work  and  the  lobbying  that  has  been 
done  in  Congress  during  the  past  fifteen  years  in 
behalf  of  new  laws  and  appropriations  for  the 
better  preservation  of  wild  life,  our  cause  has  never 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME  85 

but  once  been  ridiculed  as  a  sentimental  cause,  and 
very,  very  little  has  been  said  in  debate  regarding 
the  absence  of  money  values  from  the  wild  birds 
and  beasts. 

Up  to  this  date,  Congress  has  appropriated 
during  the  last  seven  years  at  least  $150,000  for 
the  founding  of  national  bison  ranges  and  herds, 
but  not  once  has  an  objection  been  raised  because 
the  bison  is  no  longer  of  economic  value.  On  the 
other  hand,  the  friends  of  the  bison  have  openly 
declared  to  Congress  that  the  movement  to  save  the 
species  from  extinction  is  based  entirely  on  senti- 
mental grounds.  This  state  of  feeling  in  Congress 
is  mentioned  because  it  clears  the  atmosphere,  and 
relieves  us  of  the  necessity  of  defending  the  senti- 
mental aspect  of  our  work. 

It  would  indeed  be  most  ungrateful  to  omit  here 
a  just  reference  to  the  very  important  part  that  has 
been  played  by  the  wild  life  of  America  in  the 
settlement  and  development  of  our  country.  In 
fact,  it  is  so  far-reaching  in  extent,  and  so  enormous 
in  potential  value,  that  it  fairly  challenges  the 
imagination. 

From  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  down  to  the 
present  hour  the  wild  game  has  been  the  mainstay 
and  the  resource  against  starvation  of  the  path- 
finder, the  settler,  the  prospector,  and  at  times  even 
the  railroad-builder.  In  view  of  what  the  bison 
millions  did  for  the  Dakotas,  Montana,  Wyoming, 
Kansas  and  Texas,  it  is  only  right  and  square  that 


86  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

those  states  should  now  do  something  for  the  per- 
petual preservation  of  the  bison  species  and  all 
other  big  game  that  needs  help. 

For  years  and  years,  the  antelope  millions  of  the 
Montana  and  Wyoming  grass-lands  fed  the  scout 
and  Indian-fighter,  freighter,  cowboy  and  surveyor, 
ranchman  and  sheep-herder;  but  thus  far  I  have 
yet  to  hear  of  one  western  state  that  has  ever  spent 
one  penny  directly  for  the  preservation  of  the 
antelope ! 

To  the  colonist  of  the  East  and  the  pioneer  of 
the  West,  the  white-tailed  deer  was  an  ever  present 
help  in  time  of  trouble.  Without  this  omnipresent 
animal,  and  the  supply  of  good  meat  that  each 
white  flag  represented,  the  commissariat  difficulties 
of  the  settlers  who  won  the  country  as  far  westward 
as  Indiana  would  have  been  many  times  greater 
than  they  were.  The  backwoods  Pilgrim's  progress 
was  like  this: 

Trail,  deer;  cabin,  deer;  clearing;  bear,  corn, 
deer;  hogs,  deer;  cattle,  wheat,  independence. 

And  yet,  how  many  men  are  there  to-day,  out  of 
our  ninety  millions  of  Americans  and  pseudo- 
Americans,  who  remember  with  any  feeling  of 
gratitude  the  part  played  in  American  history  by 
the  white-tailed  deer?  Very  few!  How  many 
Americans  are  there  in  our  land  who  now  preserve 
that  deer  for  sentimental  reasons,  and  because  his 
forbears  were  nation-builders?  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  are  there  any? 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME  87 

On  every  eastern  pioneer's  monument,  the  white- 
tailed  deer  should  figure ;  and  on  those  of  the  Great 
West,  the  bison  and  the  antelope  should  be  cast  in 
enduring  bronze,  "lest  we  forget!" 

The  game-birds  of  America  played  a  different 
part  from  that  of  the  deer,  antelope  and  bison.  In 
the  early  days,  shot-guns  were  few,  and  shot  was 
scarce  and  dear.  The  wild  turkey  and  goose  were 
the  smallest  birds  on  which  a  rifleman  could  afford 
to  expend  a  bullet  and  a  whole  charge  of  powder. 
It  was  for  this  reason  that  the  deer,  bear,  bison  and 
elk  disappeared  from  the  eastern  United  States 
while  the  game-birds  yet  remained  abundant.  With 
the  disappearance  of  the  big  game  came  the  fat 
steer,  hog  and  hominy,  the  wheat-field,  fruit- 
orchard  and  poultry  galore. 

The  game-birds  of  America,  as  a  class  and  a  mass, 
have  not  been  swept  away  to  ward  off  starvation  or 
to  rescue  the  perishing.  Even  back  in  the  sixties 
and  seventies,  very,  very  few  men  of  the  North 
thought  of  killing  prairie-chickens,  ducks  and 
quail,  snipe  and  woodcock,  in  order  to  keep  the 
hunger  wolf  from  the  door.  The  process  was  too 
slow  and  uncertain;  and  besides,  the  really  poor 
man  rarely  had  the  gun  and  ammunition.  Instead 
of  attempting  to  live  on  birds,  he  hustled  for  the 
staple  food  products  that  the  soil  of  his  own  farm 
could  produce. 

First,  last  and  nearly  all  the  time,  the  game-birds 
of  the  United  States  as  a  whole  have  been  sacrificed 


88  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

on  the  altar  of  Rank  Luxury,  to  tempt  appetites 
that  were  tired  of  fried  chicken  and  other  farm 
delicacies.  To-day,  even  the  average  poor  man 
hunts  birds  for  the  joy  of  the  outing,  and  the 
pampered  epicures  of  the  hotels  and  'restaurants 
buy  game-birds,  and  eat  small  portions  of  them, 
solely  to  tempt  jaded  appetites.  If  there  is  such  a 
thing  as  "class"  legislation,  it  is  that  which  permits 
a  few  sordid  market-shooters  to  slaughter  the  birds 
of  the  whole  people  in  order  to  sell  them  to  a  few 
epicures. 

As  the  starting-point  of  all  causes  for  the  preser- 
vation of  wild  life,  the  men  of  America  should  agree 
upon  what  lawyers  call  a  state  of  facts  and  the 
inevitable  logic  of  the  situation.  Let  us  see  if  we 
can  not  evolve  a  code  of  ethics  through  the  applica- 
tion of  a  little  philosophy  to  the  killing  of  game. 

Fully  95  per  cent  of  the  men  and  boys  who  kill 
American  game  regard  game  birds  and  mammals 
only  as  things  to  be  killed  and  eaten,  to  satisfy 
hunger.  This  is  precisely  the  viewpoint  of  the  cave 
man  and  the  savage,  and  it  has  come  down  from  the 
Man- with-a- Club  to  the  Man-with-a-Gun,  abso- 
lutely unchanged  save  for  one  thing:  the  latter 
sometimes  is  prompted  to  save  to-day  in  order  to 
slaughter  more  abundantly  to-morrow. 

Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  with  the  exception  of 
the  wildest  regions  of  North  America,  that  view- 
point is  absolutely  wrong.  This  country  has 
reached  such  a  stage  of  development  and  pros- 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME  89 

perity  that  even  the  poorest  industrious  man  is  able 
to  satisfy  the  hunger  of  his  family  and  himself 
without  recourse  to  wild  birds  and  mammals.  To 
this  rule  even  the  poorest  Florida  cracker  offers  no 
exception,  and  it  is  only  the  outlaw  and  the  moon- 
shiner who  regards  it  as  necessary  to  live  on  deer 
and  wild  turkeys.  In  all  North  America  there  is, 
I  venture  to  assert,  not  one  mining-camp  that  really 
needs  to  subsist  upon  moose  and  deer  and  ptarmi- 
gan. It  is  a  fixed  fact  that  no  mining-camp  can 
endure  without  a  well-established  line  of  communi- 
cation with  the  outside  world,  and  the  mere  fact  that 
moose  meat  and  caribou  steaks  are  a  little  cheaper 
than  imported  beef  and  bacon  does  not  constitute 
an  ethical  reason  why  a  valuable  fauna  of  big  game 
should  be  destroyed  to  increase  the  cash  profits  of 
Alaskan  miners. 

We  grant  that  real  prospectors  and  explorers  are 
entitled  to  live  on  wild  game  when  it  becomes  abso- 
lutely necessary;  but  beyond  them  this  privilege 
should  not  be  extended  to  any  man  or  men,  either 
white  or  red.  The  game-slaughter  privileges  now 
enjoyed  by  the  Indians  of  Alaska  are  utterly 
wrong,  and  should  be  withdrawn.  All  Indians,  and 
all  other  natives,  should  be  compelled  to  observe 
the  same  game-laws  as  white  men.  They  have  no 
more  inherent  right  to  the  wild  game  of  a  continent 
than  they  have  to  its  mineral  resources  or  its  water- 
power. 

It  is  now  an  undeniable  fact  that  only  a  few  of  the 


90  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

American  people  imperatively  need  wild  game  to 
satisfy  hunger  or  to  ward  off  starvation.  Good 
food  is  to  be  had  by  the  thrifty  in  great  abundance, 
everywhere  save  on  the  last  frontier.  We  have 
become  a  nation  of  epicures,  eternally  picking  and 
choosing  the  best  and  choicest  foods  and  drinks  out 
of  a  bewildering  array  of  meats,  fruits,  cereals  and 
vegetables.  Ninety  per  cent  of  the  Americans  who 
go  hunting  for  game  do  not  know  what  real  hunger 
is,  save  by  hearsay.  People  do  not  buy  terrapin, 
and  champagne,  and  venison,  and  canvas-back 
duck,  at  from  $2  to  $3  per  portion,  to  satisfy  real 
hunger.  Purchased  wild  game  is  used  to  pamper 
appetites  that  have  been  worn  out  in  the  service  of 
luxury. 

We  know  very  well  that  with  only  a  few  excep- 
tions wild  game  is  no  longer  necessary  to  the  Ameri- 
can people  as  food  for  the  hungry;  but  at  the  same 
time  an  abundant  supply  of  wild  meat,  killed  on  a 
conservation  basis,  would  make  a  legitimate  addi- 
tion to  the  meat  supply  of  the  nation. 

As  sensible  people,  we  believe  that  when  game  is 
sufficiently  abundant,  and  the  killing  of  it  does  not 
spell  extermination,  it  is  right  for  man  to  take  toll 
of  the  wilds.  In  my  opinion,  the  greatest  value  of 
the  game  birds  and  mammals  of  the  United  States 
lies,  not  in  their  meat  pounds  as  they  lie  upon  the 
table,  but  in  the  temptation  that  the  legitimate  pur- 
suit of  them  annually  puts  before  millions  of  desk- 
weary  clerks,  merchants,  professional  men  and 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME  91 

field-weary  farmers  to  don  their  beloved  hunting- 
clothes,  stalk  out  into  the  haunts  of  nature  and  say, 
"Begone!  dull  care!" 

There  are  millions  of  active  men  who  are  not 
tempted  to  take  violent  exercise  in  the  open  air 
unless  there  is  a  very  definite  object  to  pursue.  On 
the  other  hand,  a  true  sportsman  will  cheerfully 
expend  $400  in  money  and  $400  worth  of  hard  labor 
in  killing  one  moose  in  New  Brunswick  for  a  head 
that  easily  could  be  purchased  for  $75. 

In  the  summer  of  1913,  an  eminent  and  very 
expensive  surgeon  of  my  acquaintance  spent  $4,000 
in  money  and  $8,000  worth  of  time  in  hunting  and 
killing  about  ten  head  of  Alaskan  big  game  that 
as  food  would  have  been  worth  in  the  open  market 
possibly  $100,  but  no  more.  The  trip  saved  the 
doctor  from  a  nervous  breakdown,  and  the  con- 
tinued practice  of  his  skill  is  of  benefit  to  a  large 
circle  of  afflicted  humanity. 

The  right  sort  of  a  man  who  has  had  a  fine  day 
in  the  painted  woods,  on  the  bright  waters  of  a 
duck-haunted  bay,  or  in  the  golden  stubble  of  Sep- 
tember, can  fill  his  day  and  his  soul  with  six  good 
birds  just  as  well  as  with  sixty.  The  idea  that  in 
order  to  be  a  sportsman  and  enjoy  a  fine  day  in  the 
open  a  man  must  kill  a  wheelbarrow-load  of  birds, 
is  a  mistaken  idea;  and  if  persistently  adhered  to, 
it  becomes  vicious.  The  outing  in  the  open  is  the 
thing, — not  the  amount  of  blood-stained  feathers 
and  death  in  the  game-bag. 


92  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

The  time  has  come  when  every  sportsman  should 
admit  that  it  is  not  wise  or  sportsmanlike  or  right 
to  hunt  wild  game  of  any  species  in  a  locality 
wherein  it  is  on  the  road  to  extermination  by  exces- 
sive shooting.  No  game  should  be  killed  more 
rapidly  than  it  breeds.  Shooting  on  any  other 
principle  means  extermination;  and  from  this  grim 
conclusion  there  is  no  escape. 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  over  nearly  all  the  hunt- 
ing-grounds of  America  the  wild  game  is  being 
shot  much  more  rapidly  than  it  is  breeding,  the 
overwhelming  necessity  for  sweeping  reforms  and 
for  long  close  seasons  that  will  bring  back  the  game 
in  abundance,  should  be  apparent  to  the  dullest  man 
that  ever  carried  a  gun.  In  fact,  we  believe  that  the 
logic  of  the  situation  is  quite  apparent  to  all;  but 
the  selfish  ones  wish  to  kill  as  long  as  the  game  lasts, 
quite  contemptuous  of  the  rights  of  posterity. 

As  one  who  has  been  a  sportsman  when  game  was 
plentiful,  I  do  not  wish  to  see  hunting  with  the  gun 
degenerate,  as  it  has  in  Italy,  to  the  killing  of 
sparrows  and  pipits  and  sandpipers.  I  wish  legi- 
timate sport  to  continue  for  five  hundred  years; 
and  it  is  for  this  reason  that  I  now  insist  upon  long 
close  seasons  for  disappearing  species,  in  order  that 
they  may  recover  and  come  back  in  millions. 

As  an  educator  of  public  opinion  and  a  leader  of 
thought,  what  position  should  be  assumed  by  the 
college  man  regarding  the  utilization  of  wild  life? 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME  93 

What  may  safely  be  conceded  and  sanely  carried 
into  effect? 

We  must  not  be  extremists  where  extremism  is 
unnecessary;  neither  must  we  be  frightened  by  the 
cry  of  "prohibition"  that  is  likely  to  be  raised 
against  us.  Let  us  resolutely  hew  to  the  line,  let 
the  chips  fall  where  they  will. 

We  hold  that  the  best  friend  of  the  sportsman  is 
he  who  resolutely  seeks  to  prevent  sport  with  gun 
and  rod  from  becoming  extinct  through  the  failure 
of  legitimate  game. 

The  methods  that  must  be  applied  to  preserve 
legitimate  sport  resemble  a  painful  surgical  opera- 
tion. No  man  in  his  senses  desires  a  surgeon  to 
perform  half  an  operation,  because  a  complete 
operation  would  be  doubly  painful.  If  an  evil  is  to 
be  eradicated,  we  wish  it  done  thoroughly,  in  order 
that  the  cure  may  be  permanent.  On  this  basis,  the 
saving  and  restoration  of  American  game  now 
requires  of  us  strong  and  resolute  action.  The 
patient  will  many  times  wince  and  cry  out,  but  we 
know  that  the  only  way  to  preserve  wild  life  is  to 
enable  it  to  breed  and  multiply  at  least  as  rapidly 
as  it  is  destroyed. 

Let  us  therefore  lay  down  as  one  of  the  corner- 
stones of  wild-life  conservation  the  principle  that 
no  valuable  mid  life  ever  should  be  destroyed,  for 
any  purpose,  faster  than  it  breeds,  unless  it  is 
clearly  desirable  that  its  numbers  should  be 
reduced. 


94  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

If  we  accept  this  principle  as  a  rule  of  action,  we 
can  apply  it  literally  as  a  blood  test,  in  any  locality 
on  earth,  and  ascertain  precisely  the  line  of  policy 
that  is  necessary  to-day.  In  any  given  locality,  ask 
the  old  residents  this  question:  Is  your  game  as 
plentiful  as  it  was  twenty  years  ago?  This  question 
is  readily  answered;  and  throughout  the  United 
States  there  are  very,  very  few  localities  in  which 
it  can  be  answered  truthfully  in  the  affirmative. 
Whenever  and  wherever  it  is  answered  in  the  nega- 
tive, there  hunting  should  be  suspended  for  five 
years  on  every  species  that  is  vanishing. 

The  logic  of  this  proposition  is  quite  unassail- 
able ;  and  yet,  so  reckless,  so  greedy  and  so  destruc- 
tive is  the  great  mass  of  the  army  of  life-takers, 
the  immediate  enforcement  of  this  principle  would 
produce  throughout  our  country  a  roar  of  dis- 
approval and  protest  that  could  be  heard  almost 
around  the  world.  It  is  this  strange  and  unreason- 
ing state  of  fact  that  renders  the  task  of  the  bird 
and  mammal  protectors  so  difficult. 

The  case  of  small  game  in  America,  and  of  the 
men  who  pursue  it,  is  particularly  serious,  because 
of  the  fact  that  there  are  so  very,  very  few  localities 
in  which  the  birds  are  not  being  killed  far  faster 
than  they  are  breeding.  The  quail,  grouse  and 
shore-birds  are  in  a  very  desperate  state.  I  know  of 
but  one  locality  in  which  even  a  single  species  of 
upland  game-bird  is  breeding  faster  than  it  is  being 
killed.  In  the  deserts  of  southern  Arizona,  Gam- 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME  95 

bel's  quail,  a  species  resembling  the  well-known 
valley- quail  of  California,  is  gloriously  holding  its 
own,  chiefly  because  its  natural  enemies  are  so  few 
and  sportsmen  rarely  molest  it.  Over  thousands  of 
square  miles  of  creosote  bushes,  mesquites  and  cacti 
of  various  kinds,  that  handsome  little  quail  is  living 
in  peace  and  security ;  and  when  attacked,  it  knows 
that  safety  lies  in  running  on  the  ground  and  not 
in  taking  wing  and  rising  clear  of  the  bushes  to  be 
shot. 

The  rigid  closing  of  the  markets  of  New  York 
and  Massachusetts  against  the  sale  of  native  wild 
game  has  had  an  immediate  and  visible  effect  in 
rendering  wild  geese,  brant  and  ducks  more  plenti- 
ful all  along  the  Atlantic  coast  north  of  the  Caro- 
linas,  and  also  throughout  the  New  England  and 
Middle  States.  This  increase  is  so  marked  that 
once  more  wild-fowl  shooting  has  become  in  this 
part  of  the  world  a  legitimate  sport.  The  reduction 
of  the  four-months'  shooting  season  to  three 
months,  as  has  been  done  by  the  federal  migratory 
bird  law,  will  still  further  promote  the  return  of 
wild  fowl  to  the  northeastern  United  States,  with 
the  prospect  that  eventually  there  will  be  duck- 
shooting  for  thousands  of  sportsmen  instead  of 
hundreds  only.  From  October  1  to  January  16 
you  now  may  go  duck-shooting  on  Great  South 
Bay,  and  on  the  bays  and  lakes  of  all  New  England, 
with  a  clear  conscience;  but  I  repeat  that  in  Con- 


96  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

necticut  and  Rhode  Island  the  sale  of  game  should 
at  once  be  stopped. 

In  the  state  of  New  York,  through  the  efforts 
of  a  really  drastic  and  fairly  respected  bag-limit 
law,  the  ruffed  grouse  has  shown  a  decided  increase 
in  number.  I  mention  it  with  pleasure  as  one  of 
the  few  instances  wherein  a  bag-limit  law  on  birds 
has  accomplished  visible  results.  The  bag  limit  is 
four  birds  in  one  day,  or  twelve  per  season.  In 
another  five  years,  that  species  may  become  once 
more  sufficiently  established  that  shooting  may  be 
resumed,  even  by  conscientious  sportsmen.  To-day, 
however,  no  ruffed  grouse  should  be  shot  in  New 
York,  even  though  the  law  offers  a  margin  of  four 
birds  per  day. 

For  fifty  years,  to  go  no  farther  back,  the 
American  people  have  been  meting  out  to  their 
quail,  pinnated  grouse,  ruffed  grouse,  sage-grouse, 
wild  turkey  and  other  upland  game-birds  a  line  of 
treatment  that  has  been  wasteful,  improvident, 
cruel  and  positively  idiotic!  Every  person  who 
knows  even  the  rudiments  of  the  habits  and  mental 
traits  of  our  upland  game-birds  knows  full  well  that 
under  real  protection  all  species  of  them  become 
amazingly  tame.  By  this  I  mean  that  after  two  or 
three  years  of  genuine  immunity  from  shooting  and 
other  forms  of  molestation,  flocks  of  quail,  ruffed 
grouse,  pinnated  grouse  and  even  the  wild  turkey 
elect  to  live  in  cultivated  fields  and  around  the 
barns  and  stacks  of  the  farmer.  I  can  cite  a  few 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME  97 

instances  of  the  shy  wild  turkey,  wherein  those 
naturally  wild  and  timid  birds  have  come  into  a 
protected  tract  of  three  hundred  acres  of  cultivated 
land,  at  Deep  Lake,  sixteen  miles  east  of  the  settle- 
ment of  Everglade,  on  the  west  coast  of  Florida, 
and  are  as  tame  as  quails  commonly  become  on 
farms  where  they  never  are  shot  at. 

Under  a  sensible  system  of  conservation,  50,000,- 
000  upland  game-birds  might  at  this  moment  be 
living  on  and  around  the  farms,  ranches,  and  other 
cultivated  lands  of  the  United  States,  supplying 
5,000,000  men  and  boys  with  annual  hunting  and 
good  food,  without  one  cent  of  expense  to  anyone 
save  the  cost  of  protection  from  improper  slaughter. 

These  same  birds  would  devour  an  annual  incre- 
ment of  insects  and  weed  seeds  that  would  mean  an 
immense  additional  benefit  to  the  farmers,  fruit- 
growers and  forest-owners  of  this  country. 

But  for  half  a  century,  folly  and  greed  have 
marched  hand  in  hand.  The  people  at  large  who 
own  the  game  in  general,  and  the  farmers  who  own 
it  in  particular,  have  permitted  a  carnival  of 
slaughter  of  upland  game-birds  that  was  foolish, 
wasteful  and  wicked.  The  market-gunners  have 
been  permitted  to  slaughter  the  quail  and  grouse 
by  the  barrel,  wagon-load  and  carload,  and  ship  it  to 
Chicago,  St.  Louis  and  other  great  markets,  to  be 
sold,  or  to  spoil  unsold,  as  the  case  might  be.  A 
volume  might  be  written  on  the  wholesale  butchery 
of  American  game  for  the  markets,  and  other  forms 


98  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

of  unjustifiable  slaughter;  but  why  pursue  a  sub- 
ject so  painful  and  humiliating? 

What  the  market-hunters  left,  the  greedy  pot- 
hunters combed  out,  assisted  by  sportsmen  who 
believe  that  it  is  right  to  shoot  vanishing  game  just 
as  long  as  "the  law  permits  it!"  Now,  with  the 
quail  and  grouse  on  the  point  of  total  disappear- 
ance, we  come  to  the  next  stage  of  this  very  exas- 
perating subject. 

Having  stupidly  and  criminally  permitted  the 
almost-blotting-out  of  our  finest  native  game-birds, 
by  treatment  brutally  unfair,  the  next  step  of  the 
^natural  enemies  of  our  wild  life  was  the  intro- 
duction of  foreign  species.  About  fifteen  states 
have  attempted  to  introduce  the  Hungarian  par- 
tridge and  ring-necked  pheasant  for  the  alleged 
reason  that  our  quail  and  grouse  "can't  live"  in  their 
own  country!  Very  determined  efforts  have  been 
made  to  supplant  the  bob-white  with  Hungarian 
partridges,  but  I  am  heartily  glad  to  say  that  the 
latter  species  has  been  a  failure,  almost  everywhere 
that  it  has  been  tried  on  a  large  scale.  The  very 
latest  confession  of  failure  comes  from  California. 
I  sincerely  hope  that  the  European  partridge  never 
will  succeed  in  this  country.  If  the  American  peo- 
ple are  willing  that  their  own  quail  should  be 
exterminated  through  greed  and  folly,  I  sincerely 
hope  that  no  foreign  species  can  be  found  to  take 
its  place. 

If  our  quail  and  grouse  are  decently  treated,  and 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME  99 

sensibly  protected,  they  mil  come  back  so  rapidly 
and  so  thoroughly  that  we  will  not  need  to  look 
abroad  for  substitutes.  But  half-way  or  quarter- 
way  measures  will  not  serve.  They  require  long 
close  seasons,  and  to  become  effective  those  close 
seasons  must  be  granted  immediately! 

During  the  past  year  a  fine  case  of  retributive 
justice  developed  in  Iowa.  The  state  legislature 
was  virtually  in  the  act  of  passing  a  law  to  give 
Iowa  quail  a  much-needed  five-year  close  season; 
but  a  new  and  ignorant  state  game  warden  elected 
to  block  that  legislation,  and  he  successfully  did  so. 
Then,  in  the  plenitude  of  his  wisdom,  he  undertook 
to  hatch  and  rear  a  great  number  of  pheasants,  to 
use  in  stocking  the  empty  covers  of  the  state;  and 
I  am  glad  to  say  that  his  pheasant-breeding  opera- 
tions were  a  complete  failure. 

Nevertheless,  pheasant  raising,  which  began  on 
the  Pacific  coast  in  1881,  has  proven  successful  in 
several  states,  particularly  in  Oregon,  Washington, 
New  York  and  Massachusetts.  If  the  farmers  of 
the  states  named  had  elected  to  have  given  to  their 
quail  and  grouse  the  same  protection  that  they 
cheerfully  accorded  the  introduced  pheasants,  those 
species  would  to-day  be  ten  times  more  abundant 
than  the  pheasants  of  foreign  ancestry. 

The  transplantation  of  any  wild-animal  or  wild- 
bird  species  from  one  country  to  another  is  a  leap  in 
the  dark.  About  one-half  the  efforts  made  in  that 
direction  have  been  beneficial,  and  the  other  half 


100  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

have  resulted  disastrously.  Let  it  be  borne  in  mind 
that  the  introduction  of  any  strange  species  is 
attended  with  risks,  and  should  not  be  undertaken 
save  under  expert  advice  and  after  the  most  careful 
consideration. 

On  general  principles  it  is  dangerous  to  meddle 
with  the  laws  of  nature,  and  attempt  to  improve  on 
the  code  of  the  wilderness.  Our  best  wisdom  in 
such  matters  may  in  the  end  prove  to  be  only  short- 
sighted folly.  The  trouble  lies  in  the  fact  that  con- 
cerning the  transplantation  of  a  species  it  is  impos- 
sible for  us  to  know  beforehand  all  that  will  affect 
it,  and  all  that  it  will  affect.  In  its  own  home  a 
species  may  seem  not  only  harmless,  but  actually 
beneficial  to  man.  We  do  not  know,  and  we  can 
not  know,  all  the  influences  that  keep  it  in  check, 
and  repress  its  latent  propensities  for  evil.  We  do 
not  know,  and  we  can  not  know  without  a  trial,  how 
new  environment  will  affect  it,  or  what  new  traits 
of  character  it  may  develop.  The  gentle  dove  of 
Albion  may  easily  become  the  tyrant  dove  of 
Cathay.  The  repressed  rabbit  of  the  Old  World 
becomes  in  Australia  the  uncontrollable  rabbit,  a 
devastator  and  a  pest  of  pests. 

It  is  now  against  the  laws  of  the  United  States  to 
introduce  here  and  acclimatize  in  a  wild  state  any 
wild-bird  species  without  the  approval  of  the 
Department  of  Agriculture.  The  entry  of  the  Old 
World  mongoose  and  the  huge  fruit-bat  known  as 
the  flying  fox,  is  absolutely  prohibited.  I  regard 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME         101 

the  flying  fox  as  incapable  of  injury  to  the  United 
States,  but  the  mongoose  is  a  four-footed  terror, 
to  be  kept  out  at  all  costs.  I  think  that  this  govern- 
ment could  better  afford  to  spend  $1,000,000  in 
repression  than  to  permit  one  vigorous  pair  of 
mongoose  to  become  acclimatized  in  any  of  our  sub- 
tropical states.  As  a  destroyer  of  poultry  and 
fruit,  there  is  no  animal  in  the  American  hemi- 
sphere that  is  at  all  comparable  with  the  vicious  and 
irrepressible  mongoose  of  the  East  Indies. 

Concerning  upland  game-birds,  we  reach  the  con- 
clusion that  for  Americans  the  highest  wisdom  and 
the  first  duty  lies  in  providing  for  our  own  native 
species,  especially  the  quail,  grouse,  ptarmigan  and 
wild  turkey,  the  protection  to  which  they  are  justly 
entitled,  and  which,  if  given,  will  enable  them  to 
multiply  beyond  all  numbers  that  reasonably  could 
be  expected  of  any  foreign  species.  If  we  protect 
our  quail  properly,  we  will  not  need  the  impossible 
Hungarian  partridge.  If  we  protect  our  pinnated 
grouse,  we  will  not  need  the  Japanese  or  English 
pheasant.  If  we  wish  millions  of  upland  game- 
birds  for  nothing,  all  we  need  to  do  is  to  give  them 
the  protection  that  any  sane  and  reasonably  intelli- 
gent people  should  be  willing  and  glad  to  accord. 
The  great  question  is,  Can  the  American  people 
measure  up  even  to  a  very  ordinary  standard  of 
self-repression  and  self-denial  in  order  to  reap 
large  benefits  in  the  future?  The  extent  to  which 
the  destroyers  of  our  forests  are  not  reforesting 


102  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

offers  very  small  encouragement  to  the  friends  of 
wild  life. 

There  is  one  subject  that  I  would  urge  upon  the 
attention  of  every  man  who  is  in  any  way  interested 
in  the  development  of  our  existing  forests  or  the 
creation  of  new  forests.  It  is  the  possibilities  in  the 
raising  of  deer  in  the  forests  and  on  the  waste  lands 
of  the  United  States. 

Without  attempting  to  develop  precise  figures, 
let  us  call  to  mind  the  enormous  extent  of  the 
untillable  lands  of  the  United  States  that  are  cov- 
ered with  brush  and  young  timber,  and  also  the 
vast  areas  of  deciduous  and  coniferous  forests. 
Pause  for  one  moment,  and  consider  the  countless 
square  miles  of  unbroken  forest  that  you  have 
looked  upon  from  your  car  windows  in  the  East, 
in  the  South,  in  the  West,  and  in  southern  Canada. 
Recall  the  wooded  mountains  of  the  Appalachian 
system,  the  White  Mountains,  the  pine  forests  of 
the  Atlantic  coast  and  the  Gulf  states ;  the  timbered 
regions  of  Tennessee,  Arkansas  and  southern  Mis- 
souri; the  scrub-oak  belt  of  Minnesota,  and  the 
coniferous  forests  of  every  state  of  the  northern 
Rocky  Mountain  region.  Then  think  on  westward 
of  the  silent  and  untouched  forest  empire  of  the 
Pacific  coast,  from  the  Sacramento  Valley  to  Sitka 
and  Mount  McKinley.  Would  ten  million  deer 
and  elk  make  any  visible  impression  on  that  vast 
green  crazy-quilt  of  forest  areas? 

But  let  us,  for  the  moment,  confine  our  thoughts 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME         103 

within  the  boundaries  of  the  United  States.  From 
what  we  have  seen  with  our  own  eyes,  supplemented 
by  the  green  areas  on  the  maps  that  show  the  exist- 
ing forests  of  the  United  States,  I  think  we  are  safe 
in  making  the  estimate  that  fully  one-third  of  the 
whole  area  of  the  United  States  is  at  this  moment 
covered  by  forests,  the  remains  of  forests  or  brush- 
wood. Moreover,  a  large  proportion  of  that  total 
area,  especially  that  which  is  situated  in  mountain- 
ous regions,  consists  of  land  that  is  incapable  of 
cultivation  at  a  profit,  and  therefore  is  outside  the 
class  of  agricultural  lands.  This  being  the  case,  is 
it  not  imperative  that  the  American  people  should 
seek  to  make  those  waste  lands  produce  everything 
of  value  that  they  can  produce  without  prejudice 
to  the  development  of  timber? 

Every  wild  deer  that  is  born  in  an  open  forest 
and  rears  himself  at  no  expense  to  the  state  or  to 
any  individual,  is  a  national  or  state  asset  of  real 
value.  In  view  of  the  already  enormous  cost  of 
beef,  pork,  mutton  and  poultry,  it  is  now  quite  in 
order  to  consider  our  native  deer  as  meat-producing 
animals  and  an  important  source  of  human  food. 
The  logical  conclusion  regarding  land  that  is 
utterly  unfit  for  agriculture  is  that  it  is  available 
for  occupancy  by  valuable  animals,  either  tame  or 
wild.  The  grazing  of  western  cattle  and  sheep  in 
some  of  the  national  forests  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains is  already  a  well-established  industry,  and 


104  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

wherever  it  is  thoroughly  prosecuted  there  is 
nothing  left  for  elk  and  deer. 

But  there  are  millions  of  square  miles  of  other 
forests  in  which  no  herds  of  cattle  and  sheep  ever 
will  graze,  and  they  seem  to  remain  for  deer  alone. 
Imagine  for  a  moment  the  result  of  introducing 
upon  all  the  wild  lands  of  the  United  States  good 
colonies  of  deer  of  the  species  that  is  most  suitable 
to  them,  permitting  them  to  remain  for  fifteen  years 
unmolested,  and  then  shooting  only  the  young 
bucks.  With  the  female  deer  even  reasonably  well 
protected,  the  annual  result  in  pounds  of  good 
edible  flesh  soon  would  challenge  the  imagination. 

Henceforth,  the  cost  of  beef  and  mutton  to  the 
people  of  this  country  is  bound  to  remain  high.  The 
free  grass  ranges  of  Montana,  Wyoming  and  Texas 
exist  no  longer  on  the  old  basis.  Henceforth  the 
great  bulk  of  our  beef  supply  must  come,  not  from 
the  ranches  of  the  cattle  kings  of  the  great  plains, 
but  from  the  farms  of  the  middle  West ;  and  it  will 
be  fattened  on  corn  worth  from  fifty  to  sixty  cents 
per  bushel.  That  means  high-priced  beef.  The 
New  York  farmer  now  sells  his  calves  to  the 
butcher  because  he  can  not  afford  to  raise  them  for 
beef!  Odd,  is  it  not?  Yet  it  is  quite  true. 

There  are  counties  in  the  state  of  New  York, 
within  fifty  miles  of  New  York  City,  that  could 
under  adequate  management  be  made  to  yield  annu- 
ally more  pounds  of  venison  than  of  beef  and 
mutton,  and  this  could  be  accomplished  without  the 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME         105 

annual  expenditure  by  the  state  of  more  than  5  per 
cent  of  the  value  of  the  venison. 

The  white-tailed  deer  is  hardy,  prolific,  a  good 
meat-animal  and  able  to  live  well  in  any  forest  east 
of  the  Rocky  Mountains.  It  asks  of  man  nothing 
save  decent  protection  from  indecent  slaughter. 
On  the  hoof,  the  adult  males  weigh  from  150  to  300 
pounds,  according  to  their  position  on  the  map. 
The  smallest  members  of  the  white-tailed  deer 
group  are  those  of  Florida  and  the  eastern  Gulf 
states,  the  largest  are  those  on  the  line  from  Maine 
to  Michigan,  Minnesota,  Nebraska,  Kansas  and 
Texas. 

The  unoccupied  forest  lands  of  the  United  States 
could  in  my  opinion  produce  annually  for  our  con- 
sumption at  least  2,000,000  adult  deer,  without 
deducting  more  than  $50,000  from  the  wealth  of  the 
nation.  Those  deer  would  be  worth,  at  a  low  esti- 
mate, an  average  of  $10  each,  which  would  mean 
$20,000,000. 

By  way  of  illustration  let  us  take  the  case  of 
Vermont,  which  is  so  well  fitted  to  the  needs  of  the 
moment  that  it  seems  to  have  been  specially  devel- 
oped for  our  use. 

In  the  beginning,  the  people  of  Vermont  exter- 
minated their  original  abundant  stock  of  white- 
tailed  deer.  In  1870,  the  species  was,  so  far  as 
known,  practically  extinct  throughout  that  state. 
In  1875,  a  few  business  men  of  Rutland  decided  to 
make  an  attempt  to  restock  with  deer  the  open 


106  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

forests  around  that  city.  Accordingly  they  went 
to  the  Adirondacks,  procured  seven  female  and  six 
male  white-tailed  deer,  took  them  to  a  forest  six 
miles  from  Rutland  and  set  them  free. 

Those  deer  took  kindly  to  their  new  home,  per- 
sisted and  proceeded  to  stock  the  state.  None  were 
killed,  save  a  few  that  were  shot  contrary  to  law, 
for  twenty-two  years. 

In  1897,  it  was  decided  that  Vermont's  deer  had 
become  sufficiently  numerous  and  well  established 
so  that  deer-hunting  might  then  begin;  but  on  bucks 
only.  In  that  year  150  head  were  killed,  and  during 
the  next  three  years,  about  the  same  number  were 
taken  annually.  In  1901,  211  were  killed;  in  1902, 
561;  in  1905,  791;  in  1907,  1,600;  in  1908,  2,208, 
and  in  1909,  the  grand  total  was  5,261.  For  the 
year  last  mentioned,  1909,  the  average  weight  of  the 
deer  killed  was  155  pounds  each,  which  for  some 
reason  was  far  below  all  preceding  years,  and  sug- 
gests an  error.  The  total  weight  of  venison  taken 
was  716,358  pounds.  Computed  at  the  lowest 
reasonable  valuation,  twelve  cents  per  pound,  the 
total  value  for  1909  would  be  $85,962. 

At  this  point  another  factor  presents  itself  for 
consideration,  and  that  is  the  damage  inflicted  by 
deer  upon  farm  crops.  Fortunately  for  our  pur- 
pose, Vermont  has  furnished  the  answer  to  that 
question,  even  before  it  is  asked. 

In  Vermont,  the  deer  that  now  roam  all  over  the 
state  frequently  visit  farms  and  gardens  and  feed 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME         107 

upon  standing  crops.  They  love  peas,  beet-tops, 
turnip-tops,  green  corn  and  many  other  items  of 
the  garden.  The  state  of  Vermont  wisely  refrained 
from  the  foolish  step  of  shooting  deer  found  damag- 
ing crops,  but  elected  that  damages  should  be 
settled  with  cash.  Furthermore,  and  for  the  reason 
that  the  counties  inhabited  by  live  deer  were  those 
that  in  the  hunting  season  killed  and  ate  of  those 
deer,  the  state  shrewdly  decided  that  each  county 
should  pay  for  the  damages  inflicted  by  its  own 
deer.  This  legislation  required  the  ravaged  farmers 
to  pay  themselves  literally  out  of  their  own  pock- 
ets— a  very  different  proceeding  from  payment  by 
the  state  at  large,  from  an  impersonal  state  treas- 
ury! Under  this  system  each  claim  for  damages 
became  a  neighborhood  issue ;  and  for  once  we  have 
seen  claims  upon  public  treasuries  kept  down  to  an 
honest  basis. 

During  the  two  years  1908  and  1909,  the  total 
number  of  deer  claims  paid  was  311,  but  the  total 
sum  of  them  was  only  $4,865.  Of  those  claims, 
102  were  between  $5  and  $10  and  80  were  under  $5. 
Only  four  exceeded  $100  and  the  only  one  which 
exceeded  $200  was  the  largest  claim  of  all,  $326. 
The  total  number  of  deer  legally  killed  during  those 
two  years,  and  not  counting  several  hundred  that 
were  killed  illegally  or  by  accident,  was  7,186,  and 
at  $15  per  carcass  they  were  worth  $107,790  to  the 
people  of  Vermont.  This  fairly  answers  the  ques- 


108  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

tion  whether  the  payment  of  those  damages  was  a 
good  investment. 

In  twenty-two  years,  from  only  one  small  begin- 
ning of  thirteen  head,  the  state  of  Vermont  pro- 
duced a  valuable  annual  supply  of  venison. 
Against  the  annual  increment  must  be  set  a  pro- 
portion of  the  cost  of  state  game  wardens  and  the 
payment  of  damages,  trifling  totals,  both;  and  the 
annual  cost  of  game  wardens  is  usually  met  by  the 
annual  receipts  from  hunting  licenses!  Had  deer 
been  introduced  at  a  dozen  points  instead  of  one 
only,  Vermont  could  have  begun  gathering  her 
annual  deer  crop  in  fifteen  years,  instead  of  twenty- 
two  years.  There  is  no  need  to  wait  twenty-two 
years  for  the  harvest,  provided  the  restocking  is 
done  on  a  reasonably  liberal  scale. 

The  people  of  our  country  are  losing  each  year  an 
opportunity  to  produce  a  large  and  valuable  pro- 
duct in  wild  flesh  food,  at  practically  no  cost. 
Maine  is  carefully  conserving  her  deer  and  moose 
for  legitimate  shooting  by  sportsmen.  Without 
counting  up  the  value  of  the  venison  annually  con- 
sumed by  the  people  of  Maine,  no  small  item  in 
itself,  it  is  roughly  estimated  that  the  non-resident 
sportsmen  who  annually  go  to  Maine  for  deer- 
shooting  add  to  the  wealth  of  the  state  at  least 
$1,000,000  per  year.  This  income  has  been  esti- 
mated at  double  the  sum  we  have  named;  and  at 
all  events,  the  annual  deer  product  in  that  state  is 
an  important  state  asset.  This  product  is  made 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME         109 

possible  by  sensible  game  laws,  a  grasp  on  the 
guides  and  a  real  enforcement  of  the  game  laws. 

Now,  what  is  the  great  obstacle  to  the  production 
of  2,000,000  deer  per  year  in  the  United  States  for 
food  purposes? 

Stated  without  any  euphemism,  it  is  the  greed, 
ignorance  and  utterly  unwarranted  notions  of 
"personal  liberty"  that  often  combine  in  the  Ameri- 
can individual.  The  ethics  of  sport  and  game  pres- 
ervation in  America  are  as  yet  in  their  swaddling 
clothes.  In  fact,  it  is  no  exaggeration  to  say  that 
until  very  recently,  American  sportsmen  who  shoot 
game  have  been  without  codes  of  ethics.  With  95 
per  cent  of  the  men  who  shoot,  the  one  dominant 
idea  is  to  get  the  game,  at  all  hazards,  and  in  the 
killing  of  it,  anything  that  is  "lawful"  is  necessarily 
fair!  Millions  of  game  birds  and  mammals  have 
been  killed  in  the  United  States  because  the  law 
unwisely  permitted  it,  because  the  chance  offered, 
and  in  order  to  "kill  it  before  it  should  be  killed  by 
some  other  fellow." 

Now  and  then,  a  faint  effort  is  made  toward 
giving  the  game  a  fair  show;  but  such  efforts  have 
been  feeble  and  spasmodic.  Only  a  few  of  our 
states  have  emerged  from  the  bogs  of  barbarism  far 
enough  to  protect  fawns  and  female  deer,  and  per- 
mit only  the  killing  of  bucks  with  horns  not  less  than 
four  inches  in  length.  To-day  in  Pennsylvania  a 
graduated  M.D.,  backed  by  a  club  of  alleged 
"sportsmen,"  is  bitterly  contesting  the  right  of  the 


110  WILD  LITE  CONSERVATION 

state  to  protect  hornless  fawns!  Now,  when  men  of 
intelligence  and  means  can  have  the  hardihood  to 
defend,  even  up  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  state, 
the  killing  of  a  little  hornless  fawn,  what  can  be 
expected  of  the  horny-handed  and  bony-headed 
backwoodsman  who  does  not  dream  that  there  is 
such  a  thing  as  sporting  ethics? 

The  ugly  fetich  called  "personal  liberty,"  which 
really  means  license  to  do  as  the  individual  pleases, 
is  the  curse  of  all  American  wild  life  and  the  direct 
cause  of  an  enormous  amount  of  destruction  and 
local  extermination.  To-day  our  vast  domains  of 
wooded  mountains,  hills  and  valleys  lie  practically 
uninhabited  by  valuable  wild  life,  save  in  a  few 
exceptional  spots  that  could  easily  be  named.  We 
are  losing  much  because  we  are  so  lawless,  and 
because  so  many  of  our  protective  laws  are  treated 
as  a  joke.  A  law  that  is  foolishly  liberal  is  worse 
than  none.  We  lose  because  we  are  too  improvident 
to  conserve  our  most  valuable  wild  life,  unless  we 
are  compelled  to  do  so  by  an  officer  and  a  club. 
We  are  losing,  because  our  bag-limit  laws  are  a 
fraud,  a  delusion  and  a  snare,  so  far  as  the  real, 
permanent  preservation  of  game  is  concerned. 

The  law-breakers,  the  game-hogs  and  the  shame- 
less slayers  of  fawns  and  does  are  everywhere.  Of 
all  the  men  in  the  United  States  to-day,  I  believe 
that  fully  10  per  cent  are  already  poachers  and  law- 
breakers on  the  sly,  or  else  they  are  ready  to  become 
so  to-morrow.  The  states  that  contain  the  greatest 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME         111 

areas  of  wild  lands  naturally  lack  in  population  and 
in  tax  funds ;  and  at  present,  with  the  national  ten- 
dencies as  they  are,  not  one  such  state  can  afford  to 
put  into  the  field  even  one-half  enough  salaried 
wardens  to  protect  her  game  from  surreptitious 
slaughter.  The  average  frontiersman  never  admits 
the  divine  rights  of  kings,  but  he  does  ardently 
believe  in  the  divine  rights  of  settlers — to  reach 
out  and  take  any  of  the  products  of  nature  that  they 
happen  to  need  or  to  fancy. 

The  dragon  that  stands  between  the  people  of 
this  land  and  an  annual  increment  of  2,000,000  deer 
worth  $20,000,000  or  more,  is  the  lawless  American 
spirit!  In  the  dweller  on  the  borders  of  civilization, 
and  in  the  backwoods  generally,  that  spirit  is  hostile 
to  all  conservation  that  restrains  the  party  of  the 
second  part  from  taking  what  he  desires.  I  now 
ask  the  college  men  of  America  this  question :  Is  it 
possible  to  arouse  public  sentiment  in  this  country 
to  such  a  pitch  of  morality,  right  thinking  and  right 
doing,  that  a  rational  scheme  for  raising  deer  on 
waste  lands,  and  properly  utilizing  the  increase,  can 
be  made  possible?  If  this  question  were  put  to  me, 
I  would  answer  that  in  my  opinion  such  a  revolu- 
tion is  possible  throughout  one-half  of  the  territory 
affected,  and  even  over  the  other  half  partial  success 
could  be  achieved. 

The  campaign  of  education  and  appeal  that 
would  be  necessary  would  be  tremendous;  but  in 
time,  when  the  meat  problem  becomes  more  acute 


112  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

than  it  now  is,  it  will  be  worth  all  that  it  will  cost. 
We  lay  considerable  stress  upon  this  whole  matter, 
because  it  is  the  bounden  duty  of  college  men  to  lead 
public  thought  into  the  right  channels,  and  not 
leave  ignorant  people  blindly  groping  for  the  truth 
and  the  light. 

During  the  past  three  years,  we  have  seen  what 
great  results  can  be  achieved  by  well- organized  cam- 
paigns of  education  and  demand.  There  are  certain 
essentials  to  the  realization  of  a  dream  of  2,000,000 
deer  per  year  that  are  imperative;  and  they  are 
neither  obscure  nor  impossible.  The  first  and  the 
last  is  a  universal  square  deal  for  the  deer,  and  no 
killing  save  in  accordance  with  the  rules.  The 
second  is  that  each  state  and  each  county  proposing 
to  stock  its  vacant  woods  with  deer  must  resolutely 
educate  its  own  people  to  the  vital  necessity  of 
playing  fair  about  the  killing  of  deer,  and  giving 
every  deer  and  every  man  fair  and  just  treatment. 

If  the  leading  men  of  each  state  and  county  will 
take  this  matter  seriously  in  hand,  the  end  that  is 
vitally  necessary  to  success  can  be  attained.  The 
majority  of  the  American  people  are  not  insensible 
to  appeals  to  reason,  especially  when  those  appeals 
are  backed  up  by  their  own  "home  folks."  Our 
governors,  senators,  assemblymen,  judges,  mayors 
and  justices  of  the  peace  could,  if  they  would,  make 
a  campaign  of  education  and  demand  that  would 
result  in  the  production  of  an  immense  volume  of 
wild  food  in  every  state  that  possesses  wild  lands. 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME         113 

When  the  shoe  of  Necessity  pinches  hard  enough, 
let  the  people  remember  the  great  possibilities  in 
state  and  national  deer  farming.  If  there  can  be 
created  for  this  idea  a  foundation  of  sound  public 
sentiment,  its  success  is  absolutely  assured. 

Of  course  every  intelligent  person  knows  full 
well  that  the  richest  and  the  intensively  cultivated 
farming  regions  of  the  United  States  are  not  suited 
to  the  production  and  maintenance  of  wild  game 
of  any  kind  except  quail.  A  state  wherein  every 
acre  is  cultivated,  where  population  is  dense  and 
there  is  a  destructive  agent  on  every  square  rod  of 
earth,  is  no  fit  place  for  grouse,  ducks  or  deer.  We 
do  not  demand  impossibilities.  But  such  regions 
as  I  have  described  are  rare.  In  at  least  seven- 
tenths  of  our  states,  there  is  an  abundance  of  woods, 
swamps  and  brush-covered  hills  furnishing  suitable 
cover  for  quail,  grouse  and  deer.  In  Massachu- 
setts, Connecticut  and  New  York,  where  there  is 
an  abundance  of  waste  lands,  plenty  of  brush  and 
timber  and  stone  walls  instead  of  barbed-wire 
fences,  the  white-tailed  deer  have  enormously 
increased  during  the  past  five  years.  From  the 
Berkshire  Hills  they  have  steadily  spread  south- 
ward until  they  have  reached  New  York  City  itself, 
and  the  whole  north  shore  of  Long  Island  Sound. 
I  have  seen  that  in  Putnam  County,  New  York, 
the  wooded  Berkshire  Hills  and  the  Croton  water- 
sheds are  actually  becoming  populated  with  deer; 


114  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

and  if  the  species  is  given  another  five-year  close 
season,  they  will  become  really  numerous. 

In  this  connection  it  is  desirable  to  set  forth 
pointedly  the  principle  that  forms  the  foundation 
of  our  treatment  of  our  almost-vanished  species  of 
wild  life. 

Every  wild  species  of  bird  or  mammal  quickly 
recognizes  protection,  and  takes  advantage  of  it  to 
the  utmost. 

To  the  protector  of  wild  life,  the  most  charming 
trait  of  wild-life  character  is  the  alacrity  and  con- 
fidence with  which  birds  and  mammals  respond  to 
the  friendly  advances  of  human  friends.  At  the 
present  critical  stage  of  our  subject,  this  state  of 
the  wild- animal  mind  constitutes  a  factor  of  great 
importance  in  arresting  the  extermination  of  species 
.and  in  bringing  them  back  to  safe  ground.  This 
response  to  man's  protection  is  manifested  not  only 
in  harmless  quail  and  song-birds,  squirrels,  rabbits 
and  beavers,  but  also  in  deer,  elk,  moose,  mountain 
sheep,  antelope  and  grizzly  bears. 

The  tameness  of  squirrels  in  city  parks  is  well 
known.  Within  the  past  year,  a  covey  of  wild  quail 
has  come  several  times  to  a  rocky  ledge  witliin 
forty  feet  of  our  office  window  in  the  Zoological 
Park.  I  have  scared  gray  rabbits  off  the  front 
door  mat  of  the  Administration  Building.  In 
December,  a  gray  squirrel  entered  my  office  at  an 
open  window,  evidently  seeking  new  nest-lining 
materials  among  the  dry  scientific  pamphlets  that 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME         115 

covered  my  side-table.  In  Putnam  County,  New 
York,  the  deer  feed  in  pastures  with  the  cows  and 
browse  in  the  gardens.  Near  Port  Jervis,  New 
York,  a  ruffed  grouse  recently  nested  and  hatched 
a  brood  within  two  feet  of  the  foundation  of  an 
occupied  house.  In  the  Wichita  Bison  Range,  in 
Oklahoma,  many  thousand  wild  ducks  now  fre- 
quent the  small  stream  that  runs  through  it,  and 
until  seen  in  photographs  their  masses  are  unbeliev- 
able. At  Palm  Beach  and  Tampa,  Florida,  the 
wild  ducks  know  the  boundary  lines  of  their  pro- 
tected area  quite  as  well  as  do  any  of  the  gunners. 
On  their  protected  waters,  they  are  fearless  of  man, 
but  beyond  the  dead-line  they  immediately  become 
wild  and  wary. 

The  most  conspicuous  of  all  cases  of  the  recogni- 
tion of  protection  by  wild  animals  is  to  be  found 
in  the  Yellowstone  Park.  This  feeling  of  security  is 
shared  by  nearly  all  the  wild  animals  of  the  Park, 
but  it  is  most  strikingly  displayed  by  the  herds  of 
mule  deer,  antelope  and  elk  that  make  their  home 
near  Fort  Yellowstone  and  the  Mammoth  Hot 
Springs.  In  winter  the  mule  deer  and  antelope  are 
fed  on  hay  on  the  parade  ground,  as  if  they  were 
domestic  sheep  and  cattle.  At  Ouray,  Colorado, 
bands  of  mountain  sheep  pose  for  photographs  at 
short  range,  in  the  town,  in  a  manner  that  to  every 
hunter  of  that  wild  and  wary  species  is  a  profound 
surprise. 

The  bears  of  the  Yellowstone  Park  also  furnish 


116  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

an  amazing  exhibition.  Everywhere  outside  the 
national  or  state  parks,  every  bear  is  an  Ishmael- 
ite,  on  whose  head  a  price  is  fixed.  Knowing  well 
that  every  man  means  a  rifle  and  sudden  death,  the 
overwhelming  impulse  of  the  ursine  mind  is  con- 
stantly to  watch  for  his  arch-enemy,  man,  and  flee 
from  him  the  instant  he  is  discovered.  In  the  days 
of  the  old-fashioned  small-bore  muzzle-loading  rifle, 
the  grizzly  was  truculent,  aggressive  and  danger- 
ous. To-day,  a  gray  rabbit  does  not  turn  tail  and 
run  away  any  more  quickly  or  more  thoroughly 
than  he.  We  admire  the  grizzly  for  his  good  sense 
and  his  belief  in  the  survival  of  the  fittest;  but  we 
do  not  respect  his  courage  as  much  as  we  once  did. 
The  Yellowstone  Park  grizzlies,  and  black  bears 
also,  are  no  exceptions  to  the  general  influence  of 
peace  and  protection.  Those  bears  are  now  famous 
for  the  thorough  and  practical  manner  in  which 
they  have  accepted  protection,  and  for  years  have 
been  reaping  the  benefits  of  it.  They  have  become 
confirmed  grafters.  They  not  only  make  daylight 
visits  to  the  garbage  heaps  at  the  hotels,  but  they 
have  been  known  to  enter  the  hotels  and  walk  about 
in  them,  looking  for  offerings  of  food.  Worse  than 
this,  they  long  ago  began  to  raid  the  cook-tents  and 
mess-wagons  of  camping  parties  of  tourists,  and 
despoil  helpless  travelers  of  hams,  sides  of  bacon 
and  other  edibles  that  are  of  value  in  camps.  Being 
unable,  by  regulation,  to  shoot  any  bears  in  the 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME         117 

Park,  even  in  self-defense,  the  lot  of  many  a  tourist 
and  cook  has  been  rendered  decidedly  unhappy. 

Once,  however,  the  worm  did  turn.  Mr.  C.  J. 
Jones,  otherwise  known  as  "Buffalo  Jones," 
decided  that  a  certain  marauding  grizzly  had 
become  too  great  a  nuisance  to  be  borne;  so  after 
due  preparation  he  roped  that  grizzly  around  one 
of  its  hind  legs,  threw  the  end  of  the  lariat  over  the 
limb  of  a  tree,  and  quickly  suspended  the  bear 
between  the  heavens  and  the  earth.  While  the 
enraged  animal  swung  in  that  ignominious  position, 
wildly  snapping  and  clawing  at  the  empty  air,  Mr. 
Jones  vigorously  belabored  him  with  a  bean-pole. 
When  the  punishment  had  been  well  finished,  the 
bear  was  set  free;  and  instead  of  pausing  to  rend 
the  witnesses  of  his  humiliation,  or  even  to  punish 
the  author  of  it,  he  wildly  fled  for  the  tall  timber, 
wherein  he  turned  over  a  new  leaf. 

The  readiness  and  the  certainty  with  which  wild 
birds  and  mammals  accept  protection,  and  come 
back  to  the  old  haunts  and  the  old  numbers,  fur- 
nish us  with  the  best  of  all  reasons  for  providing 
that  protection.  It  is  within  the  power  of  the 
American  people  to  have  our  country  once  more 
teeming  with  wild  life,  if  the  people  at  large  elect 
to  have  it  so.  Within  reasonable  limits,  any  partly 
destroyed  wild  species  can  be  increased  and  brought 
back  by  giving  it  absolute  protection  from  harass- 
ment and  slaughter.  This  does  not  mean,  however, 
an  annual  open  season  for  thirty  days,  or  two  weeks, 


118  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

or  two  days,  or  any  other  period.  It  means  absolute 
immunity  from  slaughter  until  the  stock  has  become 
so  great  that  the  increase  may  be  taken.  Every 
species  that  is  struggling  to  recuperate  deserves  to 
be  left  entirely  unmolested,  and  free  from  meddle- 
some management  or  alleged  assistance  in  the 
slaughter  of  the  so-called  surplus  males.  To  this 
well-known  law  of  nature  we  know  of  not  one 
exception.  Every  breeding  wild  animal  craves 
seclusion,  entire  immunity  from  excitement,  and 
protection  from  all  forms  of  persecution.  Nature 
demands  this  as  her  unassailable  right. 

The  methods  by  which  our  birds  may  be  encour- 
aged are  very  simple.  First  of  all,  the  gunners, 
netters,  dogs  and  cats  must  be  eliminated.  It  is  now 
stated  by  some  men  who  claim  to  be  versed  in  fox 
lore  that  red  foxes  destroy  very  little  wild  bird  life. 
The  claim  is  certainly  worthy  of  serious  considera- 
tion. In  severe  winter  weather,  quail  that  are  strug- 
gling to  reestablish  themselves  should  be  abun- 
dantly fed,  and  shelters  should  also  be  provided. 
For  the  perching  birds,  nest-boxes  must  be  erected, 
and  food  offered  of  kinds  suitable  to  the  needs  of 
the  various  species.  For  the  woodpeckers,  nut- 
hatches, chickadees  and  other  special  tree-protec- 
tors, lumps  of  suet  covered  by  wire  netting,  or  of 
fat  pork,  must  be  nailed  to  tree-trunks  on  the  sunny 
side.  The  ruffed  grouse  must  sustain  themselves, 
because  it  is  almost  impossible  to  offer  them,  in  a 
wholesale  way,  any  food  that  they  will  accept. 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME         119 

As  a  final  word  on  the  subject  of  bringing  back 
the  birds,  I  wish  to  offer  a  warning  against  an  error. 
Among  the  gunners  and  sportsmen  who  wish  to 
preserve  to  the  very  last  their  right  to  kill,  we  often 
hear  it  said  that  "the  cold  winters  have  killed  all  the 
quail,"  and  "the  cold  winters  kill  more  quail  than 
the  sportsmen."  Now,  it  is  a  curious  fact  that,  con- 
trary to  all  the  rules  of  logic  and  common  sense,  the 
killing  of  quail  by  cold  winters  is  by  many  men 
advanced  as  a  reason  against  better  protection  for 
the  quail  by  long  close  seasons!  It  seems  incredible 
that  such  folly  should  emanate  from  reasoning 
beings;  but  it  does.  And,  mark  you,  the  men  who 
so  mournfully  talk  about  the  "cold  winters"  never 
in  the  fall  refrain  from  shooting  because  of  a  cold 
winter  and  decimation.  Furthermore,  they  never 
advocate  five-year  close  seasons  to  enable  the  flocks 
to  recover  before  being  blotted  out.  No.  They 
heartlessly  go  right  on  shooting  those  half-starved 
survivors,  meanwhile  protesting  against  real 
protection. 

And  then,  when  the  end  has  come,  and  the  covers 
are  tenantless,  they  seek  Hungarian  partridges  for 
restocking, — because  "our  quail  can't  stand  the 
climate" ! 

I  ask  all  friends  of  wild  life  to  insist  upon  it,  in 
season  and  out  of  season,  that  our  quail  and  grouse 
can  stand  the  climate  of  their  own  homes  if  they  are 
given  a  square  deal  and  not  exterminated  by  selfish 
men,  dogs  and  cats.  I  have  no  patience  with  the 


120  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

men  who  dolefully  talk  about  cold  winters  and  go 
right  on  shooting.  Let  us  stand  for  our  native 
game,  right  or  wrong,  and  demand  for  it  just  and 
rational  treatment.  We  can  bring  it  back  if  we 
will! 

In  stocking  new  game-preserves,  both  national 
and  private,  the  question  of  inbreeding  frequently 
is  raised.  Naturally,  there  is  solicitude  that  the 
original  stock  should  not  deteriorate,  and  private 
owners  usually  are  willing  to  expend  both  effort 
and  money  in  preventing  deterioration  through 
inbreeding. 

Several  celebrated  cases  of  the  inbreeding  of  wild 
animals  have  come  to  our  knowledge,  and  from 
them  we  may  draw  a  definite  conclusion.  The 
European  red  deer  of  the  North  Island  of  New 
Zealand  represents  the  greatest  case  of  inbreeding 
of  wild  animals  on  record.  Originally,  New  Zea- 
land possessed  no  large  game,  and  no  deer  of  any 
kind.  In  1864,  three  European  red  deer  were  taken 
from  the  royal  park  at  Windsor  Castle,  England, 
and  after  many  vicissitudes  were  liberated  not  far 
from  Christchurch.  The  trio  consisted  of  a  buck 
and  two  does.  They  found  an  abundance  of  food, 
and  promptly  they  settled  down  in  their  new  home 
and  began  to  breed.  Now,  the  North  Island  con- 
tains not  less  than  10,000  deer,  every  one  of  which 
has  descended  directly  from  the  famous  three. 
And  here  is  the  strangest  part  of  the  story:  The  red 
deer  of  New  Zealand  are  to-day  physically  larger 


THE  LEGITIMATE  USE  OF  GAME         121 

and  more  robust,  with  longer  and  heavier  antlers 
and  longer  hair,  than  any  of  the  red  deer  of  Europe 
west  of  Germany.  They  represent  the  greatest 
inbreeding  experiment  on  record;  and  the  sports- 
men of  New  Zealand  have  grand  sport  and  take 
many  fine  trophies. 

A  similar  experiment  with  fallow  deer  has  been 
carried  out  on  the  island  of  Lambay,  in  the  Irish 
Sea,  with  three  animals  transplanted  from  the 
mainland  of  Ireland  in  1892.  From  that  slender 
stock  has  sprung  a  large  herd,  which,  but  for  the 
number  purposely  killed  and  others  that  have  been 
accidentally  killed  by  falling  over  the  cliffs  during 
storms,  now  would  number  several  hundred  head. 
No  new  blood  has  been  introduced  and  no  deer  have 
died  of  disease.  Neither  the  owner  of  Lambay,  Mr. 
Cecil  Baring,  nor  his  gamekeepers,  have  been  able 
to  discover  any  deterioration  in  those  deer,  either  in 
size,  antlers,  fertility  or  general  physical  stamina. 
And  yet,  strange  to  say,  that  island  has  an  area  of 
only  one  square  mile,  640  acres ! 

These  two  demonstrations,  and  others  that  could 
be  named,  fairly  establish  the  following  new 
principle : 

When  healthy  wild  animals  are  established  in  a 
state  of  nature,  either  absolutely  free,  or  confined 
in  preserves  so  large  that  they  roam  at  will,  seek 
the  food  of  nature  and  take  care  of  themselves,  in- 
and-in  breeding  produces  no  ill  effects  and  ceases  to 
be  a  factor.  The  animals  develop  in  physical  per- 


122  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

fection  according  to  the  climate  and  their  food 
supply,  and  the  introduction  of  new  blood  is  not 
necessary. 

With  domestic  animals,  full  of  the  diseases  of 
domestication,  inbreeding  has  a  natural  tendency 
to  multiply  diseases  and  accentuate  weaknesses. 
They  breed  by  artificial  selection,  they  lead  lives  of 
inactivity  and  their  food  may  or  may  not  be  adapted 
to  their  wants.  The  processes  of  nature  are  seri- 
ously interfered  with,  and  the  domestic  animal  lives 
only  because  it  is  strong  enough  to  withstand  man's 
erratic  and  faulty  treatment.  I  repeat,  therefore, 
that  with  healthy  wild  animals  roaming  free  in 
immense  ranges,  and  seeking  nature's  food  supply, 
the  evil  effects  of  inbreeding,  usually  inseparable 
from  herds  of  domestic  animals,  do  not  appear ;  and 
if  the  blood  of  the  original  stock  is  good,  no  new 
blood  is  necessary. 

In  conclusion,  it  is  quite  clear  that  the  business  of 
bringing  back  the  almost- vanished  wild  life  of  our 
country,  and  developing  it  into  an  asset  of  great 
value,  is  a  field  offering  very  great  possibilities. 
Certainly  it  is  worth  the  serious  attention  of  serious 
men.  The  great  obstacles  to  be  overcome  are  the 
ignorance,  greed  and  apathy  of  a  large  section  of 
the  public.  If  they  can  be  overcome,  great  things 
are  possible. 


CHAPTER  IV 

ANIMAL  PESTS  AND  THEIR  RATIONAL 
TREATMENT 

To  any  one  who  attempts  to  deal  with  problems 
and  campaigns  for  the  benefit  of  wild  animals,  the 
so-called  wild-animal  pests  quickly  become  of  prac- 
tical importance.  Civilized  man  is  prone  to  go 
about  with  a  chip  on  his  shoulder  and  a  gun  in  his 
hand,  looking  for  some  bird  or  mammal  that  has 
inflicted  damage  on  some  of  his  sacred  possessions, 
in  order  that  he  may  kill  the  accused  with  a  con- 
science most  virtuously  clear.  The  loss  of  a  thirty- 
cent  chicken  sometimes  arouses  a  twenty- dollar 
indignation  in  the  breast  of  a  poultry  farmer, 
regardless  of  a  credit  balance  of  perhaps  $30  in  the 
hawk's  account  for  rats  and  mice  destroyed. 

To  know  precisely  what  the  real  pests  are  among 
wild  mammals  and  birds  seems  very  much  worth 
while.  This  knowledge  is  necessary  to  the  forester, 
first,  in  order  that  he  may  protect  the  innocent,  and 
secondly,  that  the  guilty  may  be  brought  to  justice. 
Again,  there  are  times  in  particular  localities  when 
the  local  individuals  of  a  species  generally  believed 
harmless,  or  even  valuable,  actually  may  become  a 
nuisance  so  serious  as  to  require  abatement. 


124  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

In  approaching  this  subject  we  offer  four 
propositions : 

First,  A  wild  bird  or  mammal  species  may  inflict 
upon  human  interests  a  certain  amount  of  damage, 
yet  not  be  so  destructive  as  properly  to  be  listed  as 
a  pest. 

Second,  Under  exceptional  local  conditions,  a 
species  usually  quite  harmless  may  suddenly  become 
so  destructive  as  to  compel  its  classification  locally 
as  a  pest,  and  to  demand  its  local  abatement  by 
systematic  measures. 

Third,  Certain  species  are  everywhere  so  destruc- 
tive to  valuable  property  that  wherever  found  they 
should  be  destroyed. 

Fourth,  Sometimes  destructive  individuals  are 
so  rare  that  it  is  unwise  to  provide  bounties  for 
their  destruction,  because  such  bounties  often  lead 
unscrupulous  or  ignorant  hunters  to  destroy  valu- 
able birds  and  mammals,  through  mistakes  in  iden- 
tification, or  alleged  mistakes. 

We  can  not  inveigh  too  strongly  against  the 
ignorant  and  intolerant  spirit  that  leads  a  farmer 
or  orchardist  to  seek  revenge  upon  the  bird  world 
for  every  petty  damage  that  may  be  inflicted  upon 
his  fruit  orchard  or  field  crop. 

On  the  other  hand,  we  can  not  and  will  not 
ignore  the  unbearable  damages  that  sometimes  are 
inflicted  by  wild  birds  and  mammals  on  the  crops  or 
herds  of  farmers  who  can  ill  afford  to  submit  to  a 
serious  waste  of  the  means  whereby  they  live. 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         125 

On  the  whole,  this  subject  demands  exact  knowl- 
edge, nice  discrimination  and  judicial  treatment. 
Upon  the  very  threshold  of  the  subject,  I  wish  to 
impress  most  strongly  upon  the  mind  of  every  stu- 
dent the  vital  necessity  of  evidence  that  can  stand 
the  test  of  cross-examination.  It  is  very  desirable 
that  every  person  who  may  be  called  upon  to  deal 
with  wild  life,  and  decide  the  fate  of  creatures  that 
are  helpless  in  their  own  defense,  should  spend  a 
few  days  in  a  court-room,  listening  to  the  trials  of 
half  a  dozen  cases  of  different  kinds.  A  court- 
room is  the  best  place  in  the  world  in  which  to  learn 
what  constitutes  real  evidence,  and  to  learn  the 
imperative  necessity  of  taking  testimony  on  both 
sides  of  a  serious  question. 

Let  me  cite  a  celebrated  case  bearing  on  this 
point,  to  illustrate  what  easily  becomes  the  wicked 
folly  of  hastily  calling  a  wild  species  a  pest, 
and  condemning  it  to  destruction  on  insufficient 
evidence. 

For  several  years  prior  to  the  year  1900,  the 
fishermen  of  San  Francisco  had  been  complaining 
that  the  sea-lions  of  the  California  coast  were 
devouring  enormous  quantities  of  salmon  and  other 
valuable  food  fishes,  and  that  they  had  greatly 
diminished  the  annual  fish  supply.  In  addition  to 
this,  it  was  claimed  that  the  sea-lions  caused  great 
damage  to  fishermen's  nets  and  impounded  fishes. 
The  fishermen  formally  demanded  of  the  California 


126  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

State  Fish  Commission  that  the  sea-lions  be 
destroyed. 

Without  pausing  to  make  even  a  pretense  of 
investigating  the  charges,  the  Fish  Commission 
ordered  that  the  sea-lions  should  be  destroyed;  and 
the  Commission  obtained  from  the  United  States 
Light-House  Board,  in  Washington,  written  per- 
mission to  carry  out  the  slaughter  on  the  govern- 
ment lighthouse  reservations,  as  well  as  elsewhere. 

The  news  of  the  proposed  slaughter  was  at  once 
laid  before  certain  eastern  naturalists,  who  doubted 
the  justice  of  the  death  verdict  on  the  sea-lions,  and 
demanded  proof  that  the  animals  were  guilty  as 
charged.  Finding  that  there  existed  no  evidence 
of  a  specific  and  convincing  nature,  and  that  no 
scientific  investigation  of  the  food  habits  of  the 
California  sea-lions  ever  had  been  made,  they 
entered  quick  and  vigorous  protests  against  the 
proposed  slaughter  and  demanded  its  suspension 
pending  an  adequate  investigation.  When  the 
facts  in  the  case  were  laid  before  the  Light-House 
Board,  the  Board's  permission  to  kill  was  imme- 
diately revoked  by  telegraph. 

But  the  California  state  authorities  had  power 
to  act  on  the  water  frontage  of  the  state,  and  in  a 
few  localities  the  killing  of  sea-lions  proceeded. 

By  good  fortune,  it  happened  that  during  the 
killing  operations  that  took  place  in  Monterey  Bay 
and  vicinity,  Prof.  L.  L.  Dyche,  of  the  University 
of  Kansas,  arrived  upon  the  scene  to  pursue  special 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         127 

studies  in  marine  life.  Being  of  an  inquiring  turn 
of  mind,  he  carefully  dissected  and  examined  the 
stomachs  of  twenty  dead  sea-lions  that  had  washed 
ashore,  and  of  five  others  that  he  killed  for  the 
purpose  of  mounting  their  skins.  Now  mark  the 
result : 

Every  stomach  examined  contained  the  remains 
of  squids  and  devil-fish  (Octopus),  one  or  both; 
both  of  which  are  among  the  fisherman's  enemies! 
Not  one  of  the  twenty-five  stomachs  examined  con- 
tained  any  portion  of  a  scaled  fish! 

In  1901,  two  investigators  from  the  United 
States  Fish  Commission  conducted  an  extensive 
investigation  of  this  subject,  and  reported  upon  it 
very  fully  in  1902.  At  six  points  on  the  California 
coast  they  killed  twenty-four  specimens  of  the 
California  sea-lion  and  eighteen  of  Stellar's  sea- 
lion.  Their  detailed  report  revealed  the  fact  that 
the  California  sea-lion  lives  chiefly  on  squid,  and 
the  diet  of  the  Stellar  embraces  both  squid  and 
scaled  fishes,  but  as  they  found  it  the  food  of  the 
latter  consisted  of  an  assortment  of  species  of  little 
value,  and  contained  not  one  salmon  or  shad. 

But  for  the  interference  of  those  meddlesome 
eastern  naturalists,  both  the  species  of  sea-lions 
inhabiting  the  coast  of  California  would  have  been 
destroyed,  down  to  a  very  low  point  in  numbers, 
in  punishment  for  crimes  of  which  they  were  almost 
wholly  innocent !  The  obvious  moral  of  this  episode 
is — never  condemn  a  wild-animal  species  on  insuffi- 


128  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

dent  evidence,  and  especially  not  on  charges  pre- 
ferred by  ignorant  persons.  Investigate;  take 
testimony  on  both  sides,  and  be  very  certain  that 
you  are  right  before  you  sign  the  death  warrant. 

In  taking  up  our  four  principles  one  by  one,  we 
begin  with  that  which  concerns  the  species  which 
inflict  some  damage  to  man's  interests,  but  not 
sufficient  to  deserve  death. 

A  few  years  ago  we  heard  much  about  the  robins, 
blue  jays  and  thrushes  that  devour  cherries  and 
strawberries  and  other  small  fruits.  Of  late,  how- 
ever, we  have  heard  from  the  horticulturists  very 
little  on  this  point.  The  farmers  have  learned  to 
value  the  good  services  of  those  birds,  and  the  birds 
themselves  have  vastly  diminished  in  number.  The 
agricultural  press  has  rendered  such  excellent  ser- 
vice in  behalf  of  the  insectivorous  birds  that  now, 
and  henceforth,  we  have  little  reason  to  fear  that 
any  American  farmer  of  sufficient  industry  and 
intelligence  to  maintain  fruit-trees  will  be  so  igno- 
rant as  to  kill  the  insectivorous  birds  that  each  sea- 
son take  a  few  cherries  and  other  small  fruits  in 
payment  for  their  labor  in  destroying  insects. 

The  most  serious  indictment  against  these  birds 
that  I  ever  have  heard  comes  from  the  vineyards 
along  the  southern  shore  of  Lake  Erie,  where  the 
robin  has  done  serious  damage  by  his  habit  of 
taking  a  single  grape  at  each  descent,  thereby  for 
each  grape  spoiling  the  appearance  of  a  marketable 
bunch. 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         129 

The  blue  jay  has  been  indicted  for  numerous 
petty  offenses  against  the  farmer,  but  his  record  as 
a  destroyer  of  insects  has  saved  him  from  punish- 
ment. Recently,  however,  a  new  fact  has  been 
revealed  which  when  fully  known  should  make  this 
saucy  and  handsome  bird  the  safest  from  harm  of 
all  our  small  birds.  It  is  known  that  the  eggs  of 
the  deadly  brown-tail  moth  hatch  in  the  autumn, 
and  the  young  pass  the  winter  in  nests  that  are 
formed  in  trees.  To  meet  this  unusual  condition, 
the  blue  jay  blithely  seeks  out  those  nests  in  winter, 
tears  them  open,  and  devours  the  contents!  Now, 
if  this  is  not  sufficient  to  induce  every  forester  to 
look  upon  the  blue  jay  with  a  protecting  eye, 
nothing  ever  will  avail. 

Various  species  of  blackbirds  destroy  small 
amounts  of  grain,  but  I  never  knew  a  farmer  to  kill 
one  on  that  account.  No  one  else  knows  half  so 
well  as  the  plowman  the  industry  and  success  of  our 
old  friend  the  purple  grackle  in  gleaning  the  abomi- 
nable white  grub-worms  out  of  the  freshly  turned 
furrows,  and  the  lonesome  plowman  finds  real  com- 
panionship in  the  birds  that  follow  him  with 
cheerful  industry,  hour  after  hour,  when  the  field  is 
destitute  of  other  company. 

Only  once  have  I  ever  known  an  individual  crow 
to  be  so  diligent  in  wrong-doing  as  to  deserve  the 
death  penalty.  In  1902,  many  young  ducks  were 
hatched  in  the  Zoological  Park,  and  no  sooner  had 
the  ducklings  taken  to  the  waters  of  the  Wild- 


130  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

Fowl  Pond  than  they  attracted  the  deadly  atten- 
tion of  an  old  crow,  also  nesting  in  the  Park,  with  a 
nestful  of  young  of  her  own  to  maintain.  She 
began  feeding  those  ducklings  to  her  brood,  and  her 
industry  soon  became  appalling.  After  the  sixth 
duckling  had  been  swept  into  that  corvine  vortex,  it 
became  painfully  evident  that  we  must  choose 
between  one  brood  of  crows  and  about  one  hundred 
ducklings.  It  became  our  painful  duty  to  order 
the  destruction  of  that  crow;  which  was  done;  and 
her  nestlings  were  taken  and  reared  by  hand.  That 
was  the  first  and  last  occasion  on  which  we 
ever  found  it  necessary  to  sign  a  death  warrant 
returnable  against  a  crow.  Crows  may  easily  be 
kept  out  of  a  cornfield  by  erecting  a  scarecrow 
representing  a  man  with  a  gun. 

Concerning  the  fruit-eating  habits  of  a  number 
of  our  most  valuable  insectivorous  birds,  there  is 
one  way  out  of  the  difficulty  that  is  obvious,  but 
very,  very  rarely  carried  into  effect.  It  consists 
in  the  planting  of  a  few  Russian  mulberry  and 
sweet-cherry  trees  on  every  farm,  especially  for  the 
birds.  For  four  years,  State  Game  Commissioner 
John  M.  Phillips,  of  Pittsburgh,  has  been  educat- 
ing the  people  of  Carrick,  Pennsylvania,  old  and 
young,  into  this  method  of  attracting  birds,  and 
providing  for  their  needs.  The  fruit  of  the  Russian 
mulberry  is  greatly  liked  by  birds,  and  it  ripens 
continuously  throughout  four  months  of  the  year. 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         131 

There  should  be  inaugurated  a  general  movement 
for  the  planting  of  these  trees. 

Our  second  subject  relates  to  the  species  of  birds 
and  mammals  that  usually  are  harmless,  but  under 
exceptional  local  conditions  sometimes  become 
pests  that  require  abatement.1 

The  principle  involved  is  best  explained  by 
examples.  The  most  world-famous  case  is  that  of 
the  introduction  of  the  European  rabbit  in  Aus- 
tralia. Under  the  restrictions  imposed  by  hunters, 
poachers,  hawks  and  owls  in  densely  populated 
England,  the  English  hare  is  so  scarce  as  to  be 
harmless.  In  Australia,  with  abundant  food,  a 
hospitable  climate  and  practically  nothing  to  keep 
the  species  in  check,  it  multiplied  to  such  an  extent 
as  to  constitute  an  intolerable  pest.  In  southern 
California,  Texas  and  Oklahoma,  the  wild  jack- 
rabbit  in  the  same  manner  once  increased  so 
enormously  that  wholesale  killing  measures  became 
necessary  to  keep  down  the  total. 

In  one  locality  in  the  state  of  Oregon,  eagles  once 
became  so  numerous  that  their  depredations  on  the 
lambs  of  the  flocks  of  the  sheep-owners  became  too 
great  to  be  borne.  When  the  case  was  laid  before 

i  The  crow  has  long  been  fought  over,  by  a  small  minority  that 
recounts  his  wrong-doings  and  demands  his  blood,  which  is  opposed 
by  an  overwhelming  majority  that  recounts  the  bird's  good  deeds 
and  resolutely  prevents  his  being  slaughtered.  It  is  perfectly  true 
that  some  of  the  ways  of  the  crow  are  very  trying;  but  when  all  the 
evidence  has  been  brought  in  and  weighed  and  measured,  the  good 
deeds  of  the  crow  in  devouring  grasshoppers,  cutworms  and  other 
bad  insects,  meadow  mice  and  other  bad  rodents,  are  so  many  that 
Corvus  seldom  is  condemned  to  wholesale  destruction. 


132  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

an  eastern  bird  protector  and  his  judgment  was 
asked,  he  advised  that  the  over-supply  of  eagles 
should  by  shooting  be  reduced  to  a  point  sufficiently 
low  so  that  subsequent  depredations  would  be 
endurable.  Fortunately,  that  condition  was  con- 
fined to  a  small  area  and  it  was  by  no  means  neces- 
sary to  enact  a  general  law  providing  for  state-wide 
eagle  destruction.  In  fact,  such  a  law  would  have 
been  a  mistake. 

About  five  years  ago  a  gentleman  living  on 
Shelter  Island,  near  the  eastern  end  of  Long 
Island,  liberated  a  herd  of  white-tailed  deer  in  a 
county  wherein  deer-shooting  is  permitted  by  law 
on  two  days  only  of  each  year.  Two  years  later, 
complaints  were  made  that  on  Shelter  Island  it  was 
impossible  to  maintain  a  vegetable  garden,  on 
account  of  the  depredations  of  deer.  It  was  claimed 
that  it  was  impossible  to  build  a  wire  fence  high 
enough  so  that  those  deer  could  not  leap  over  it; 
but  that  statement  was,  and  is,  open  to  doubt.  The 
conditions  described  above  suggested  a  law  to  pro- 
vide for  the  abatement  of  wild-animal  nuisances, 
which  was  proposed  by  the  framers  of  the  revised 
game-laws  of  the  state  of  New  York,  and  adopted. 
It  appears  in  the  code  of  that  state  as  Section  158, 
and  its  full  text  is  as  follows : 

Power  to  Take  Birds  and  Quadrupeds.  In  the  event  that 
any  species  of  birds  protected  by  the  provisions  of  section  two 
hundred  and  nineteen  of  this  article,  or  quadrupeds  protected 
by  law,  shall  at  any  time,  in  any  locality,  become  destructive 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         133 

of  private  or  public  property,  the  commission  shall  have  power 
in  its  discretion  to  direct  any  game  protector,  or  issue  a  permit 
to  any  citizen  of  the  state,  to  take  such  species  of  birds  or 
quadrupeds  and  dispose  of  the  same  in  such  manner  as  the 
commission  may  provide.  Such  permit  shall  expire  within  four 
months  after  the  date  of  issuance. 

We  commend  this  measure  for  enactment  into 
law  in  every  state  of  the  Union,  on  the  ground  that 
it  offers  a  rational  and  safe  remedy  for  many 
legitimate  grievances  that  otherwise  can  not  be 
redressed.  There  is  no  reason  why  wild  animals 
should  be  permitted  to  destroy  large  quantities  of 
private  property  without  recourse. 

In  a  previous  lecture  we  referred  with  some  detail 
to  the  damages  of  wild  deer  to  the  gardens,  orchards 
and  farm  crops  of  Vermont,  and  the  Vermont 
treatment  of  such  cases.  Each  county  is  authorized 
and  required  to  settle  in  cash  the  damages  inflicted 
upon  its  own  residents,  and  the  system  is  in  opera- 
tion throughout  the  state,  apparently  to  the  satis- 
faction of  every  one  concerned.  It  having  been 
reported  that  female  deer,  hitherto  immune  from 
slaughter,  had  become  so  numerous  and  so  tame 
that  they  constituted  a  nuisance,  the  state  very 
wisely  and  justly  decided  that  it  was  necessary  to 
reduce  the  number.  Accordingly,  a  law  was  passed 
permitting  the  killing  of  female  deer,  with  the 
intent  to  leave  it  in  force  until  the  total  number  of 
female  deer  has  been  reduced  to  a  proper  point, 
when  it  will  be  repealed. 


134  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

In  small  city  parks,  gray  squirrels  can  easily 
become  so  numerous  as  to  constitute  a  pest  to 
nesting  birds.  It  is  a  mistake  to  permit  one  hun- 
dred squirrels  to  exist  in  a  park  so  small  that  it  has 
room  for  only  twenty  or  less.  A  swarm  of  restless 
and  hungry  squirrels  will  attack  nesting  birds,  and 
devour  both  eggs  and  young  birds.  A  park  that 
has  become  infested  with  red  squirrels — our  most 
destructive  and  objectionable  species — deserves  to 
be  delivered  from  the  pest  by  the  use  of  a  ,22-caliber 
rifle,  fitted  with  a  Maxim  silencer  in  order  that  the 
process  may  not  be  made  painfully  conspicuous  in 
the  ears  and  eyes  of  the  public. 

I  am  distinctly  not  in  favor  of  slaughtering  birds 
merely  because  at  rare  intervals  they  flock  in  grain- 
fields  and  consume  grain.  The  period  wherein 
grain  destruction  is  possible  is  very  brief;  and  the 
proper  way  to  protect  the  crops  is  by  spending  a 
few  dollars  in  systematically  frightening  the  birds 
and  compelling  them  to  move  on.  In  all  such  cases, 
the  shot-gun  should  be  the  farmer's  last  resort,  not 
the  first.  I  am  a  firm  believer  in  the  use  of  blank 
cartridges  in  the  preservation  of  fruit  and  field 
crops  from  the  unbearable  attacks  of  birds,  but  the 
farmer  who  uses  them  runs  the  risk  of  being  without 
his  feathered  friends  when  he  most  needs  their  aid! 

The  time  was,  a  few  years  ago,  when  we  all  con- 
ceded that  the  rice-growers  of  the  Carolinas  had  a 
moral  right  to  hire  negroes  to  slaughter  bobolinks 
(or  rice-birds)  with  shot-guns,  for  the  protection 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         135 

of  the  rice  crops.  To-day  the  rice-growing  industry 
in  the  Carolinas  is  nearly  dead,  and  the  old  condi- 
tions no  longer  exist.  There  now  remains  no  excuse 
whatever  for  the  slaughter  of  bobolinks  for  sport, 
for  food  or  to  protect  crops.  The  bobolink-rice- 
bird  is  no  longer  in  the  pest  class,  and  it  deserves  the 
same  permanent  protection  that  is  accorded  the 
robin  and  thrush. 

The  bobolink  is  a  useful  bird;  but  mark  you  the 
ill  turn  it  has  been  served  by  the  evil  reputation  that 
forty  years  ago  was  forced  upon  it  by  the  rice 
planters  of  the  Carolinas.  Because  it  ate  rice,  that 
beautiful  songster,  which  part  of  the  year  does 
good  execution  on  insects  and  weed  seeds,  was  shot 
for  food,  as  an  alleged  "pest."  Sportsmen  entered 
into  the  slaughter  and  some  have  continued  in  it. 
By  reason  of  this  ancient,  out-of-date  and  now 
wholly  libelous  excuse,  the  sportsmen  of  certain 
states  now  continue  to  shoot  bobolinks  as  "game." 
Strangest  of  all  bird-killing  spectacles,  every 
autumn  we  see  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  about 
1,100  gunners  take  the  field,  and  slaughter  bobo- 
links for  "sport,"  all  around  the  Capitol  of  this  bird- 
protecting  nation ! 

Everywhere  throughout  the  world,  save  in  one 
place,  the  killing  of  female  hoofed  and  horned  game 
is,  by  conscientious  men  and  true  sportsmen,  re- 
garded as  highly  destructive  to  species,  and  there- 
fore quite  inadmissible.  No  species  can  long 
withstand  the  destruction  of  its  mothers !  No  man 


136  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

who  kills  female  hoofed  game  for  sport  can  prop- 
erly be  called  a  sportsman,  nor  can  he  be  said  to 
have  a  code  of  ethics.  But  there  is  one  exception 
to  this  otherwise  universal  rule  regarding  female 
hoofed  game,  and  I  mention  it  because  of  the  very 
great  rarity  of  such  cases.  It  relates  to  the  elk  of 
the  Yellowstone  Park. 

For  many  years  past,  the  finest  and  largest  male 
elk  of  the  Yellowstone  Park  herds  have  been  shot 
to  death  outside  the  Park  by  sportsmen  and 
poachers,  for  their  heads  and  "tusks."  As  a  result 
of  this  relentless  culling-out  process,  it  is  now  very 
difficult  to  find  in  Wyoming  or  Montana  a  large 
bull  elk  with  a  really  heavy  and  imposing  pair  of 
antlers.  The  twelve- point  bulls  are  not  only  very 
few  in  number,  but  their  antlers  are,  as  a  rule,  light 
and  mediocre.  And  yet,  the  actual  number  of  elk 
in  the  Yellowstone  region  is  47,000;  and  only 
recently  there  was  great  elk  starvation  in  the  Jack- 
son Valley,  the  winter  home  of  the  great  park  herds. 

As  an  actual  fact,  there  is  at  present  a  great  over- 
supply  of  female  elk  and  an  alarming  insufficiency 
of  winter  grazing-grounds.  In  addition  to  these 
evils,  the  sires  of  the  great  elk  herds  are  immature 
animals,,  really  unfit  for  breeding  purposes;  and 
their  calves,  many  of  them,  are  too  weak  to  survive 
their  first  winter. 

This  situation  is  beset  with  problems  and  diffi- 
culties. Our  own  answer  to  the  puzzle  is  that  the 
stock  of  breeding  females  must  resolutely  be 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         137 

reduced,  and  the  sires  of  the  herds  must  be 
improved.  Our  advice  is:  For  five  years  stop  the 
killing  of  male  elk,  and  during  that  period  kill  2,500 
cow  elk  each  year.  This  plan  we  believe  is  the  only 
solution  of  the  elk  problem  that  ever  will  prove 
effective,  and  place  the  herds  on  a  firm  basis  for 
the  future. 

A  few  years  ago,  certain  interests  in  Penn- 
sylvania raised  a  great  public  outcry  against  the 
alleged  awful  destruction  of  fish  in  the  streams  of 
Pennsylvania  by  herons.  The  case  was  made  so 
serious  that  the  fish  commissioner  demanded  that 
state  protection  be  removed  from  the  herons  and 
certain  other  birds.  The  state  game  commissioners 
were  hoodwinked  into  accepting  the  charges  as  true, 
and  they  virtually  permitted  the  throwing  of  the 
herons  into  the  arena  of  slaughter.  A  little  later 
on,  however,  the  game  commissioners  found  that  the 
herons  remaining  in  Pennsylvania  were  far  too  few 
to  constitute  a  pest  to  fish  life,  and  furthermore,  the 
millinery  interests  appeared  to  be  behind  the  move- 
ment. Under  the  new  law  the  milliners  were 
enabled  to  reopen  in  Pennsylvania  the  sale  of 
aigrettes,  because  those  feathers  came  from  mem- 
bers of  the  unprotected  Heron  Family!  It 
required  a  tremendous  state  campaign  to  restore 
protection  to  the  herons  and  bar  out  the  aigrettes ; 
but  it  was  accomplished  in  1912. 

Hereafter,  let  no  man  for  one  moment  be 
deceived  by  the  claim  that  the  very  few-and-far- 


138  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

between  herons,  bitterns  and  kingfishers  that  now 
remain  in  the  United  States,  anywhere,  are  such  a 
menace  to  fish  life  that  those  birds  are  a  pest  and 
deserve  to  be  shot.  The  inland  streams  of  the 
United  States  and  Canada  lack  fishes  because  they 
have  been  outrageously  overfished, — wastefully, 
wickedly  depleted,  without  sense  or  reason,  by  men 
who  scorn  the  idea  of  conservation.  In  Orleans 
County,  New  York,  a  case  was  reported  to  me  of  a 
farmer  who  dynamited  the  waters  of  his  own  creek, 
in  spawning  time! 

Go  where  you  will,  wherever  fish  still  exist  in  our 
interior  waters,  and  you  will  not  be  long  in  hearing 
stories  of  fish  slaughter  and  fish  waste  that  will 
amaze  and  anger  you.  In  view  of  all  the  wicked- 
ness that  has  been  perpetrated  on  the  game-fishes 
of  our  fresh-water  streams  and  ponds,  I  have  no 
patience  with  any  of  the  stories  of  great  fish 
slaughter  by  herons,  kingfishers  or  any  other  wild 
birds.  Such  stories  deserve  the  contempt  of  every- 
one who  hears  them.  At  this  moment,  after  fifty 
years  of  wasteful  and  wicked  fish  destruction,  the 
great  and  virtuous  state  of  Texas  is  about  to  con- 
demn to  death  the  remaining  pelicans  of  her  gulf 
coast — because  they  eat  fish!  Even  a  state  can  be 
both  stupid  and  mean,  the  same  as  an  individual; 
and  to  charge  to  wild  birds  the  fish  extermination 
that  has  been  perpetrated  by  man  is  both  false  and 
cowardly. 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         139 

Before  we  leave  this  section  of  our  subject,  I  wish 
to  add  a  pointed  word  of  warning. 

There  are  very  many  confirmed  destroyers  of 
wild  life  who  lose  no  opportunity  to  charge  up  to 
other  causes  the  evil  results  of  their  own  practices. 
For  example,  the  relentless  quail-killer  will  look 
you  squarely  in  the  face,  and  with  never  a  blush 
mantling  his  cheek,  he  will  tell  you  "the  hard  win- 
ters kill  more  quail  than  sportsmen  do."  The 
squirrel- shooter  will  declare  that  birds  are  scarce 
because  the  squirrels  rob  their  nests  and  eat  their 
young;  and  this  in  a  region  where  now  there  is  only 
one  wild  squirrel  to  every  ten  square  miles. 

Do  not  accept  seriously  any  fantastic  statement 
or  theory  regarding  alleged  great  damages  that 
have  been  inflicted  upon  valuable  interests  by  wild 
birds  or  mammals,  until  indisputable  evidence  has 
been  laid  before  you.  Out  in  Arizona,  the  desert 
men  say,  "Snake  stories  don't  go  unless  you  pro- 
duce the  rattles."  With  us  stories  of  havoc  and 
destruction  by  "pest"  birds  and  "pest"  mammals 
"don't  go"  unless  we  can  see  good  proof.  During 
our  late  unpleasantness  in  Congress  with  the 
feather  millinery  trade  (1913) ,  our  opponents  very 
strenuously  insisted  upon  their  right  to  import  the 
feathers  and  skins  of  birds  that  had  been  killed  as 
"pests."  We  met  that  claim,  and  vanquished  it,  by 
demanding  to  be  shown  any  country  in  the  world 
that  sends  forth  a  noteworthy  commercial  feather 
product  from  birds  that  have  been  killed  solely 


140  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

because  they  were  pests,  and  irrespective  of  the 
feather  millinery  trade.  We  demanded  to  be  shown 
a  commercial  product,  from  any  source,  of  genuine 
"pest"  bird  feathers.  Nothing  of  the  kind  could 
either  be  shown  or  described.  The  hawk,  eagle  and 
condor  feathers  that  enter  the  feather  markets  of 
Europe  come  from  birds  that  are  sought  out  and 
killed  especially  for  the  feather  trade. 

The  first  reply  to  make  to  every  demand  for  the 
destruction  of  wild  bird  and  mammal  pests  is  this: 
"Show  me  the  proof!  Give  me  facts  that  would  be 
regarded  as  evidence  in  a  court  of  law;  then  I  will 
believe  it,  but  not  before." 

We  now  come  to  our  third  proposition,  which 
embraces  the  wild  species  that  everywhere  are  so 
destructive  to  valuable  property  that  they  deserve 
to  be  destroyed,  and  concerning  which  there  is  no 
dispute. 

At  the  head  of  this  list  of  evil-doers  stands  the  big 
Gray  Wolf  or  "Timber"  Wolf,  strong  of  limb  and 
jaw,  insatiable  in  appetite,  a  master  of  cunning  and 
the  acme  of  cruelty.  The  states  that  still  possess 
gray  wolves  have  done  well  in  placing  a  high  cash 
bounty,  varying  from  $10  to  $25  on  the  head  of  this 
four-footed  fiend.  At  this  moment,  many  a  forest 
ranger  west  of  the  great  plains  is  on  the  alert  for 
signs  that  will  show  the  location  of  the  dens  of 
breeding  pairs  of  gray  wolves,  in  order  that  if 
possible  the  parents  may  be  destroyed  before  the 
young  are  born;  or,  failing  that,  that  the  young 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         141 

may  be  destroyed  in  the  spring  before  they  leave 
the  den. 

Ever  since  the  range  steer  took  the  place  of  the 
American  bison,  a  relentless  warfare  has  been 
waged  against  the  gray  wolf.  The  hordes  of  gray 
marauders  that  once  battened  and  fattened  on  the 
millions  of  wasted  buffalo  carcasses  have  been 
reduced  to  scattered  fragments.  On  the  plains 
there  is  to-day  perhaps  one  gray  wolf  to  every 
hundred  that  were  there  prior  to  1885.  The  cow- 
boy and  the  professional  wolfer  have  enormously 
reduced  the  wolf  population;  but  for  all  that,  it 
seems  impossible  to  exterminate  the  species,  or  even 
to  prevent  the  continuous  slaughter  of  stock.  The 
doubled  values  of  cattle  and  sheep  have  led  to 
increased  activities  in  the  destruction  of  wolves,  but 
at  the  same  time  it  has  intensified  the  keen  ability 
of  the  wolf  to  preserve  his  own  life  under  most 
adverse  circumstances. 

The  intelligence  of  the  gray  wolf  in  securing  his 
prey,  and  in  avoiding  traps,  poison,  dogs  and  fire- 
arms, is  unsurpassed  in  anything  of  flesh  and  blood. 
The  disappearance  of  the  wild  game  throws  the 
subsistence  of  the  wolf-pack  upon  the  ranchman 
and  stock-owner.  Thanks  to  the  bounty  system, 
the  total  number  of  wolves  now  alive  in  the  United 
States  is  small.  In  1912,  the  rangers  of  the  United 
States  Forestry  Bureau  killed  241  gray  wolves,  and 
during  a  similar  period  the  Province  of  British 
Columbia  alone  accounted  for  518  wolves. 


142  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

The  gray- wolf  area  embraces  about  three-fourths 
of  the  entire  continent  of  North  America,  and  it 
includes  the  entire  Rocky  Mountain  region  of  the 
United  States  and  the  Sierra  Madre  of  Mexico 
down  to  Guadalajara.  Wherever  found,  the 
proper  course  with  a  wild  gray  wolf  is  to  kill  it 
as  quickly  as  possible.  While  it  is  quite  possible  to 
catch  gray  wolves  in  steel  traps,  success  in  such 
endeavors  is  very  difficult  to  attain.  Poison  is  the 
best  exterminator,  but  its  successful  use  calls  for 
expert  knowledge.  The  best  of  all  methods  is  to 
destroy  the  young  in  their  dens,  as  soon  as  possible 
after  their  birth.  The  destructiveness  of  the  gray 
wolf  is  concentrated  on  the  young  of  range  stock, 
colts,  calves,  half -grown  cattle  and  sheep  being  the 
principal  victims.  Of  wild  game,  the  deer  and 
antelope  are  the  greatest  sufferers,  and  to  both 
those  species  the  gray  wolf  is  terribly  destructive. 

In  regions  that  now  are  almost  destitute  of  game, 
the  gray  wolf,  when  hard  pressed  by  hunger,  some- 
times becomes  deadly  dangerous  to  man.  It  has 
been  stated  that  there  is  not  on  record  in  America 
one  well- authenticated  instance  of  a  human  being 
having  been  attacked  and  killed  by  gray  wolves. 
Now,  however,  there  are  two  such  cases  on  record, 
and  we  believe  that  the  evidence  on  which  they  rest 
is  true.  It  is  reported  that  near  the  close  of  1912, 
a  mail-carrier  serving  the  lumber-camps  above 
Lake  Nipigon,  about  sixty  miles  north  of  Lake 
Superior,  in  the  Province  of  Ontario,  was  killed 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         143 

and  completely  devoured  by  wolves.  Four  large 
wolves  were  killed  by  the  carrier  before  he  was  over- 
powered. This  is  said  to  have  been  the  second 
occurrence  of  that  kind  in  that  region,  and  a  reign 
of  terror  was  the  result! 

Everything  that  has  been  said  regarding  the 
gray  wolf  may  be  repeated  regarding  the  Coyote, 
but  in  a  decidedly  minor  key.  The  latter  is  smaller 
and  weaker,  cowardly  instead  of  courageous, 
inferior  in  cunning,  and  even  though  far  more 
numerous,  its  depredations  are  less  serious.  The 
specialty  of  this  animal  is  deer  and  antelope  fawns, 
grouse  and  quail.  In  the  United  States  its  range  is 
generally  the  same  as  that  of  the  gray  wolf.  While 
the  United  States  forest  rangers  were  destroying 
241  gray  wolves  in  1912,  they  killed  6,478  coyotes, 
and  in  the  same  period  British  Columbia  accounted 
for  3,563. 

The  good  services  performed  by  the  coyote  con- 
sists in  the  destruction  of  prairie-dogs,  Franklin 
spermophiles  and  other  burrowing  rodents  that  are 
injurious  to  land  and  crops.  These  services,  how- 
ever, are  completely  overshadowed  by  the  slaughter 
of  young  calves,  colts  and  lambs.  The  prong- 
horned  antelope  often  falls  a  victim  to  this  pest. 
The  coyote  is  an  Ishmaelite.  Every  man's  hand  is 
against  him  and  he  should  be  killed  wherever  found 
in  a  wild  state. 

The  Mountain  Lion  of  the  West,  known  to  us  as 
the  puma  or  cougar,  also  is  a  destructive,  dangerous 


144  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

and  intolerable  pest.  Wherever  it  is  numerous  it  is 
fearfully  destructive  to  deer  and  young  elk,  and  it 
must  be  hunted  down  and  destroyed  regardless  of 
cost.  In  California  the  annual  slaughter  of  deer  by 
pumas  is  said  to  be  enormous.  It  is  the  deadliest 
enemy  of  the  big  game  of  every  region  which  it 
inhabits.  It  kills  mountain  sheep,  elk,  deer,  and 
every  other  species  of  game  of  attractive  size  that 
lives  within  its  haunts.  In  the  Yellowstone  Park 
so  many  elk  calves  were  killed  by  pumas  it  became 
necessary  for  Mr.  C.  J.  Jones  to  procure  a  pack  of 
dogs  and  regularly  exterminate  as  many  pumas  as 
could  be  found.  Around  the  entrance  of  one  puma 
den  the  hunters  found  the  skulls  of  nine  elk  calves. 
During  that  campaign  a  large  number  of  pumas 
were  hunted  down  and  killed;  but  for  all  that,  the 
number  still  remaining  in  the  Yellowstone  Park  is 
estimated  by  the  Park  officers  at  100.  In  1912 
our  forest  rangers  killed  88  pumas,  and  British 
Columbia  destroyed  277. 

The  disappearance  of  wild  game,  and  the  spread 
of  stock-raising  into  the  home  of  the  Grizzly  and 
Black  Bear  of  the  West,  very  naturally  has  led  to 
the  destruction  of  range  cattle  by  bears,  to  an 
unbearable  extent.  It  is  now  a  well-known  fact 
that  if  bears  are  left  unmolested  and  permitted  to 
become  numerous,  they  quickly  acquire  the  idea 
that  they  are  immune  and  grow  bold  accordingly. 
On  such  a  basis,  stock-killing  is  a  quick  and  sure 
result.  While  we  are  unalterably  opposed  to  the 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         145 

extermination  of  species,  we  believe  that  dangerous 
and  destructive  predatory  animals  must  be  shot 
down  to  a  point  sufficiently  low  so  that  they  are  no 
longer  a  nuisance  that  stalks  abroad  at  noonday. 
One  grizzly  on  every  one  hundred  square  miles  of 
Rocky  Mountain  territory  is  sufficient  to  impart  a 
distinctly  ursine  flavor  to  the  wilderness  and  main- 
tain the  charm  that  is  best  expressed  by  the  term 
"wild  country." 

In  the  Yellowstone  Park,  the  grizzly  bears  have 
become  so  numerous  and  aggressive  it  has  been 
necessary,  for  the  safety  of  the  public,  to  reduce  the 
number.  This  has  been  done,  not  by  shooting  the 
surplus,  but  by  capturing  the  most  offensive  ani- 
mals alive  and  unhurt,  in  steel  cages,  and  shipping 
them  to  zoological  gardens  and  parks.  We  are 
unalterably  opposed  to  the  capture  of  the  American 
king  of  beasts  in  steel  traps,  and  subjecting  him  to 
a  sordid  and  ignominious  death.  For  him,  any 
other  death  than  by  a  sportsman's  rifle,  after  a  fair 
stalk,  is  unacceptable.  Trapping  bears,  either  to 
destroy  them  as  pests  or  to  kill  them  for  their  fur, 
never  should  be  tolerated  in  any  civilized  country. 
If  wild  bears  become  so  numerous  as  to  constitute 
a  menace  to  public  safety,  a  scourge  to  private 
property  and  a  genuine  pest,  then  let  that  fact  be 
made  known  in  the  press,  and  let  sportsmen  be 
invited  to  come  in  and  reduce  the  ursine  population. 
Of  course  there  is  no  objection  to  a  forest  ranger 
hunting  down  and  shooting  an  objectionable  bear, 


146  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

but  we  strongly  object  to  steel  traps  and  poison. 
It  happens,  however,  that  the  great  American 
sportsman  has  so  thoroughly  done  his  work  in 
grizzly-bear  slaughter  that  to-day  it  is  almost  an 
impossibility  for  a  tenderfoot  sportsman  to  find  an 
unkilled  grizzly  in  any  hunting-ground  within  the 
borders  of  the  United  States.  When  inquirers  ask, 
"Where  can  I  go  and  kill  a  grizzly  in  this  country?" 
the  reply  is,  "Nowhere!" 

The  Lynxes,  wherever  found,  are  a  pest,  though 
not  in  the  class  of  great  pests.  Their  depredations 
correspond  to  their  size,  and  are  confined  chiefly 
to  game-birds  and  small  game- quadrupeds.  The 
rabbit  family  is  the  mainstay  of  the  lynx,  and  when 
rabbits  fail,  the  lynxes  are  quickly  reduced  to  a 
state  bordering  upon  starvation.  Although  it  is 
known  that  a  lynx  can  and  occasionally  does  kill  a 
mountain  sheep,  such  occurrences  are,  we  believe, 
extremely  rare.  An  undue  abundance  of  lynxes 
soon  could  become  an  intolerable  nuisance,  but 
owing  to  the  rarity  of  lynxes  as  they  are  found  at 
this  time,  they  are  almost  a  negligible  factor. 

In  farming  communities,  the  Mink,  Weasel, 
Skunk,  Raccoon,  and  even  the  Opossum,  all  become 
so  destructive  to  poultry  as  to  constitute  pests 
that  require  to  be  suppressed.  I  have  in  my  pos- 
session a  photograph  showing  the  remains  of 
twenty  English  pheasants  that  were  killed  by  one 
weasel  in  one  night.  Every  individual  of  the  five 
species  named — mink,  skunk,  raccoon,  opossum  and 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         147 

weasel — is  to  be  regarded  as  a  perpetual  enemy  of 
poultry  and,  unless  extenuating  circumstances  can 
be  found,  deserves  death.  It  follows  most  naturally 
that  a  savage  little  beast  which  by  disposition  and 
weapons  is  fitted  to  destroy  all  kinds  of  poultry 
will,  in  wild  regions,  be  equally  destructive  to  valu- 
able bird  life,  especially  those  species  that  live  on 
or  near  the  ground. 

Regarding  the  Red  Fox  and  his  relatives,  there  is 
an  unsettled  dispute.  For  many  years  this  species 
has  occupied  a  place  in  the  class  of  pests,  and  on 
that  basis  his  pelt  has  been  demanded.  Quite 
recently,  in  the  columns  of  a  sportsman's  magazine, 
defenders  of  the  fox  have  arisen,  who  stoutly  declare 
that  to  their  positive  knowledge,  based  on  many 
years'  experience,  the  red  fox  is  not  a  great  de- 
stroyer of  game-birds  and  poultry,  as  has  been 
charged  in  the  indictments  against  him.  Certain  it 
is  that  grouse  and  quail,  and  other  ground-nesting 
birds,  never  were  so  numerous  as  in  the  days  when 
the  foxes  of  the  United  States  were  most  numerous. 
It  would  almost  seem  as  if  it  is  the  way  of  the  fox 
to  live  upon  the  lame,  the  halt  and  the  blind  among 
upland  game-birds,  and  by  catching  and  consuming 
the  weakest  to  promote  the  survival  of  the  fittest. 
It  is  quite  certain,  however,  that  foxes  are  very 
destructive  to  woodland  grouse  in  winter,  when  the 
latter  are  heavily  handicapped  by  deep  snow. 

For  the  game  of  North  America,  large  and  small, 
it  has  been  a  fortunate  thing  that  the  destruction 


148  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

and  disappearance  of  the  fur-bearing  animals — 
game-killers  nearly  all  of  them — has  fully  kept 
pace  with  the  general  destruction  of  game.  In  view 
of  the  destruction  of  the  wild  food  supply,  it  is  not 
strange  that  to-day  the  wolves,  coyotes,  pumas  and 
bears  are  compelled  to  resort  to  the  cattle,  sheep, 
horses,  pigs  and  poultry  of  the  farmer  and  ranch- 
man in  order  to  avoid  starvation. 

The  birds  that  now  are  known  to  be  more 
destructive  than  beneficial  are  few  in  number,  but 
fairly  conspicuous.  Few  indeed  are  the  birds  of 
North  America  whose  depredations  are  so  pro- 
nounced 'and  so  constant  that  they  create  a  general 
average  of  wickedness  that  is  intolerable  and  clearly 
deserving  of  death.  It  is  a  serious  matter  to  con- 
demn a  species  to  death  by  violence,  and  American 
naturalists  have  learned  the  wisdom  of  not  signing 
death  warrants  hastily  or  on  insufficient  evidence. 
After  all  has  been  said,  there  appear  to  be  only 
seven  bird  species  so  totally  depraved,  and  so 
unprotected  by  mitigating  circumstances,  that  the 
verdict  of  guilty  is  unanimous. 

The  Sharp- Shinned  Hawk,  a  near  relative  of  the 
falcons,  is  a  keen  hunter,  a  swift  flyer  and  a  relent- 
less murderer  of  small  birds.  In  size  it  is  next  to 
our  pigeon-hawk  and  third  from  the  sparrow-hawk, 
the  smallest  of  all.  It  hunts  along  fences  and  hedges 
like  a  dog  hunting  rabbits,  and  pursues  song- 
birds into  and  through  their  thickets  like  a  winged 
mongoose.  Its  principal  food  is  song-birds,  and 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         149 

rarely  does  it  capture  a  mouse.  It  is  rather  too 
small  to  handle  domestic  poultry  with  complete 
success,  but  it  can  be  very  destructive  to  young 
pheasants  and  quail. 

A  complete  list  of  the  contents  of  159  sharp- 
shinned  hawk  stomachs  reveals  a  tale  of  slaughtered 
innocents  that  is  appalling.  Ninety-nine  contained 
song-birds,  woodpeckers,  etc.,  6  contained  poultry, 
6  contained  mice,  5  contained  insects  and  52  were 
empty.  All  North  America,  north  of  Guatemala, 
constitutes  the  breeding-ground  and  hunting- 
ground  of  the  sharp-shin,  and  wherever  found,  old 
or  young,  it  should  be  killed  without  compunction. 

Cooper's  Hawk  is  the  companion  in  crime  of  the 
preceding  species,  and  equally  deserving  of  an  early 
and  violent  death.  In  form  and  color  it  bears  a 
strong  resemblance  to  the  sharp-shin,  but  it  is  a 
much  larger  bird.  Being  a  bird  of  strong  and  rapid 
flight,  much  strength  and  activity  and  also  great 
boldness,  it  is  well  equipped  for  raiding  poultry- 
yards  and  pheasant-farms,  and  carrying  off  almost 
everything  except  geese,  turkeys  and  large  ducks. 
Of  133  stomachs  examined,  34  contained  poultry 
or  game-birds,  52  contained  other  birds,  11  con- 
tained small  mammals,  1  contained  a  frog,  3  con- 
tained lizards,  2  contained  insects,  and  39  were 
empty.  The  game-bird  species  consisted  of  1 
ruffed  grouse,  8  quail  and  5  pigeons.  Altogether, 
21  species  of  useful  birds  had  been  eaten  and  only 
4  mice,  1  rat  and  1  grasshopper.  No  bird  record 


150  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

could  be  much  blacker  than  this.  The  Cooper's 
hawk,  which  inhabits  the  whole  United  States,  is 
an  unqualified  pest,  deserving  of  swift  and  sure 
destruction. 

The  American  Goshawk,,  chiefly  confined  to 
Canada  and  Alaska,  is  a  wholesale  destroyer  of 
game-birds,  serves  no  useful  purpose,  and  deserves 
destruction.  Fortunately,  it  is  nowhere  numerous 
and  is  rarely  seen. 

The  Duck-Hawk  or  Peregrine  Falcon,  inhabit- 
ing all  America  north  of  Chili,  is  another  hated 
destroyer  of  game-birds  and  song-birds,  with  no 
extenuating  circumstances  save  at  very  long  inter- 
vals a  lonesome  mouse  or  insect.  Each  bird  of  this 
species  deserves  treatment  with  a  choke-bore  gun. 
First  shoot  the  male  and  female,  then  collect  the 
nest,  the  young  or  the  eggs,  whichever  may  be 
present.  They  all  look  best  in  collections. 

The  Pigeon-Hawk,  second  from  the  smallest 
species  of  our  hawks,  is  fearfully  destructive  to  our 
best  beloved  song-birds.  It  kills  thrushes,  gold- 
finches, vireos,  bobolinks,  sparrows,  swifts  and 
many  other  species.  Kill  it  without  mercy!  Out 
of  56  specimens  examined,  41  contained  song-birds. 
In  shooting  this  dull-gray  bird,  be  careful  not  to 
kill  the  beautiful  little  sparrow-hawk — dull  blue, 
bright  rusty  brown,  white,  black  and  salmon  color — 
because  it  is  a  phenomenal  destroyer  of  insects. 
The  sparrow-hawk  is  probably  the  most  valuable 
of  all  our  hawks,  and  also  the  most  beautiful. 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         151 

The  time  was  when  we  could  hesitate  before 
deciding  the  fate  of  the  Great  Horned  Owl,  but 
owing  to  the  enormous  decrease  in  bird  life  that 
period  has  gone  by.  To-day  the  horned  owl  is  an 
aerial  murderer  and  robber,  and  the  benefits  he 
confers  in  rat-killing  are  completely  buried  under 
a  mass  of  slaughtered  song-birds,  ruffed  grouse, 
quail,  pigeons,  ducks  and  other  birds.  I  advise 
every  forest  ranger  to  kill  every  great  horned  owl 
that  he  can  kill,  and  thereby  save  hosts  of  useful 
birds.  In  British  Columbia  the  great  horned  owl 
has  been,  and  still  is,  a  great  scourge  to  the  upland 
game-birds — grouse,  ptarmigan  and  quail.  The 
game-birds  were  so  abundant  that  presently  the 
owls  became  epicurean  in  their  tastes  and  often  ate 
only  the  brains  of  their  prey.  Then  systematic 
warfare  began,  and  in  two  years,  1910  and  1911, 
3,139  great  horned  owls  were  killed.  The  provin- 
cial game  warden,  Mr.  A.  Bryan  Williams,  declared 
in  his  last  annual  report  that  since  the  destruction 
of  those  owls  the  grouse  had  visibly  increased. 

The  rather  small  and  slender  Long-Eared  Owl 
should  live.  He  destroys  a  few  sparrows,  but  these 
are  paid  for  three  times  over  by  his  slaughter  of 
wild  mice  of  many  species.  Of  all  owls  he  is  the 
greatest  mouser. 

The  Short-Eared  Owl  is  in  all  respects  an  under- 
study of  the  long-eared,  and  deserves  similar 
immunity  from  slaughter,  and  protection. 

The  Barred  Owl  is  as  omnivorous  as  the  raccoon. 


152  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

He  not  only  eats  mice  and  other  small  rodents, 
frogs,  lizards,  fishes,  crawfish,  a  few  sparrows  and 
other  small  birds,  but  he  cheerfully  and  impartially 
takes  in  every  screech-owl  and  saw-whet  owl  that 
he  can  catch.  It  is  the  only  owl  known  to  us  that 
can  frighten  small  birds  in  an  aviary,  induce  them  to 
dash  against  the  wire  netting  and  actually  seize  and 
devour  them  through  netting  of  one-inch  mesh. 
The  barred  owl  should  be  killed,  because  it  is  a  pest. 

Beyond  question,  throughout  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tain region,  the  Golden  Eagle  is  a  great  pest  to 
certain  species  of  large  game.  The  destruction  of 
mountain  sheep  lambs,  antelope  fawns  and  moun- 
tain goat  kids  by  this  bird  is  quite  serious.  For 
this  reason,  and  others,  in  British  Columbia  the 
golden  eagle  is  officially  regarded  as  a  pest,  and 
its  numbers  have  been  systematically  reduced.  In 
1910  and  1911, 102  golden  eagles  were  killed  in  that 
province,  as  I  believe  with  entire  justice. 

The  transactions  of  British  Columbia  in  destroy- 
ing wild  animal  pests  afford  an  interesting  and 
instructive  exhibit.  During  two  years'  operations, 
1910  and  1911,  there  were  destroyed  a  total  of 
2,896  gray  wolves  and  pumas  and  5,141  coyotes,  in 
addition  to  the  horned  owls  and  golden  eagles 
already  noted.  Allowing  fifty  head  of  game  to  each 
gray  wolf  and  to  each  puma,  and  ten  to  each  coyote 
(very  fair  estimates,  we  think) ,  the  total  number  of 
game  and  domestic  animals  saved  each  year  by  the 
killing  of  those  marauders  would  amount  to  191,210 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         153 

head.  I  think  that  an  estimate  of  one  victim  per 
week  for  each  adult  puma  and  gray  wolf  is  not 
extravagant. 

In  California  there  is  made  the  same  killing  esti- 
mate for  the  puma,  fifty  victims  per  year.  If  this 
is  anywhere  near  correct,  then  the  one  hundred 
pumas  estimated  among  the  wild  animals  present 
in  the  Yellowstone  Park  must  devour  nearly  5,000 
head  of  game  each  year. 

The  extermination  of  wild-animal  pests  in  na- 
tional, state  and  private  forests  is  a  large  subject. 
It  is  beset  with  difficulties  and  perplexities.  Owing 
to  the  frailty  of  human  nature  when  it  carries  a  gun, 
the  Forest  Service  of  the  nation  and  the  state  is 
deprived  of  a  valuable  line  of  outside  assistance  to 
which  by  all  rights  it  is  entitled.  Outside  assistance 
in  shooting  pest  animals  often  is  more  deadly  than 
the  pests  themselves.  The  one  thing  that  a  man 
with  a  gun  finds  it  hardest  to  resist  is  temptation; 
temptation  to  shoot  everything  that  might,  could, 
would  or  should  be  a  "pest"  mammal  or  bird. 
Whenever  an  unscientific  gunner  takes  the  field  to 
shoot  "pest"  hawks,  it  is  time  for  all  hawks  to  take 
to  the  tall  timber.  The  assembly  of  erroneous  heads 
that  were  sent  in  to  Harrisburg  for  bounties  during 
the  prevalence  of  the  "fool  hawk  law"  is  an  ancient 
but  still  living  joke  in  the  Pennsylvania  State  Game 
Commission. 

Remembering  this,  the  Commission  is  now  sorely 
perplexed  by  the  prospect  that  offers  of  fresh 


154  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

bounties  for  the  destruction  of  "vermin"  will  lead  to 
the  slaughter  of  a  great  number  of  quadrupeds  and 
birds  under  cover  of  the  law,  by  alleged  mistakes  in 
identification.  The  secretary  of  the  Commission 
has  sent  broadcast  a  stern  warning  to  the  effect  that 
no  mistakes  in  the  hunting  of  pests  will  be  tolerated. 

The  gray  wolf  has  been  pursued  with  great  vigor 
and  vengefulness,  and  although  an  enormous  num- 
ber has  been  killed,  the  supply  seems  inexhaustible. 
At  times,  "Old  Lobo"  drives  a  ranchman  to 
despair.  In  all-around  cunning  and  resourceful- 
ness, bears  and  pumas  are  mere  amateurs  in  com- 
parison. There  is  no  royal  road  to  any  gray-wolf 
pelt,  but  a  $25  bounty  is  certain  to  reduce  the  wolf 
population  very  effectively.  A  few  years  ago,  a 
gathering  of  stock-growers  convened  in  Seattle  to 
meet  an  expert  who  had  been  invited  and  urged  to 
come  over  into  Macedonia  and  instruct  the  popu- 
lace on  the  latest  methods  of  wolf  destruction.  The 
assembly  rashly  concluded  that  it  was  about  to 
receive  a  sovereign  remedy,  a  genuine  specific  for 
the  cure  of  stock- slaughter. 

When  all  had  been  said  by  the  stock-men,  the 
government  expert  announced  that  the  best  way 
to  destroy  wolves  was  to  locate  the  dens  and  then 
destroy  both  old  and  young.  The  proletariat  was 
greatly  disappointed.  It  had  expected  a  quick  and 
sure  remedy,  and  it  laughed  the  expert  to  scorn. 
But  the  mistake  was  its  own.  There  never  was  any 
reason  for  the  belief  that  human  intelligence  could 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         155 

devise  a  sure  and  certain  method  for  finding  and 
killing  the  most  cunning  and  capable  of  all  Ameri- 
can predatory  animals  except  the  wolverine. 

The  eradication  of  the  puma  from  certain  dis- 
tricts that  it  now  infests  to  a  deplorable  extent  is  a 
task  of  immediate  urgency,  and  it  should  not  be 
lost  to  view  because  of  the  wolf  question.  At  this 
moment  pumas  are  a  curse  to  the  deer,  elk  and  other 
game  of  the  Yellowstone  Park,  the  Kaibab  Plateau, 
on  the  western  rim  of  the  great  Colorado  Canyon, 
and  in  southern  and  southeastern  California.  The 
puma  is  very  successfully  hunted  with  dogs  that 
have  been  trained  to  trail  it,  and  this  is  legiti- 
mate sport  in  which  outsiders  may  engage  with 
safety  to  the  other  game.  Once  popularize  it,  and 
the  doom  of  the  puma  is  sealed.  For  all  wild- 
animal  pests  (except  bears)  that  kill  fifty  deer  or 
elk  calves  per  capita  each  year,  we  consider  fire- 
arms, dogs,  traps  and  strychnine  thoroughly  legi- 
timate weapons  of  destruction.  For  such  animals, 
no  half-way  measures  will  suffice. 

The  rabbit  plague  in  New  Zealand  and  Austra- 
lia, already  mentioned,  is  so  well  known  as  to 
require  little  comment.  It  is  a  useful  illustration  of 
what  a  seemingly  harmless  animal  can  do  when 
circumstances  enable  it  to  live  and  breed  without 
restraint.  The  introduction  of  the  rabbit  into 
Australia  was  deliberately  done,  to  furnish  sport 
and  an  additional  food  supply. 


156  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

"The  inhabitants  of  Australia,"  says  Dr.  Lydek- 
ker,  "soon  found  that  the  rabbits  were  a  plague,  for 
they  devoured  the  grass,  which  was  needed  for  the 
sheep,  the  bark  of  the  trees  and  every  kind  of  fruit 
and  vegetable,  until  the  prospects  of  the  colony 
became  a  very  serious  matter,  and  ruin  seemed 
inevitable.  From  New  South  Wales  upwards  of 
15,000,000  rabbit  skins  have  been  exported  in  a 
single  year,  while  in  thirteen  years  ending  with 
1889,  no  less  than  39,000,000  were  accounted  for  in 
Victoria  alone. 

"To  prevent  the  increase  of  these  rodents,  the 
introduction  of  weasels,  stoats,  mongooses,  etc.,  has 
been  tried;  but  those  carnivores  neglected  the 
rabbits  and  took  to  feeding  on  poultry,  and  thus 
became  as  great  a  nuisance  as  the  rabbits  them- 
selves. An  attempt  to  kill  the  rabbits  by  an  epi- 
demic disease  also  failed.  Wire  fences,  sometimes 
150  miles  long,  have  been  erected  to  bar  rabbits 
from  new  territory." 

In  New  Zealand  the  increase  of  rabbits  in  twenty 
years  has  been  so  enormous  that  in  some  districts 
it  has  become  a  question  whether  the  colonists 
should  not  vacate  the  country  rather  than  attempt 
to  fight  the  plague.  But  the  fur  trade  now  raises 
the  star  of  hope  in  Australia.  Rabbit  fur  is  now  in 
so  great  demand  that  about  twenty  million  rabbit 
skins  are  annually  exported  from  that  continent  to 
Europe.  Rabbit  fur  is  now  dyed  and  sold  by  fur- 
riers under  the  following  trade  names :  seal,  electric 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         157 

seal,  Hudson  seal,  Red  River  seal,  sable,  French 
sable,  sable  coney  and  seal  coney. 

Occasionally  during  the  past  twenty  years,  jack- 
rabbits  so  greatly  increased  in  Colorado  and  south- 
ern California  that  great  rabbit  drives  became 
necessary,  in  which  the  rabbits  were  destroyed  by 
wholesale  methods. 

Unhappy  Australia  is  now  struggling  with  a  new 
pest.  About  thirty  years  ago,  the  European  red 
fox  was  introduced,  to  establish  the  noble  pastime 
of  fox  hunting;  and  the  result  was  an  escape  of 
foxes  that  soon  began  to  stock  the  country.  Having 
no  natural  enemies  to  contend  with  except  man,  the 
foxes  soon  found  themselves  in  a  vulpine  paradise. 
They  are  industriously  devouring  all  kinds  of  wild 
mammals  and  birds  except  the  largest  species, 
domestic  poultry,  pigs  and  lambs,  and  it  is  believed 
that  they  will  eventually  spread  all  over  Australia. 
The  government  offers  a  bounty  on  fox  scalps,  but 
the  increase  of  the  pest  continues. 

In  America  the  English  sparrow  is  now  a 
national  sorrow.  This  pest  is  past  eradication,  save 
by  an  effort  so  great  and  so  costly  that  no  such 
effort  ever  will  be  put  forth.  All  Americans 
declare  with  irritation  that  "the  English  sparrow  is 
a  nuisance,  and  ought  to  be  exterminated";  but 
there  the  matter  rests. 

And  now  comes  the  European  starling,  a  short, 
thick  bird  of  black  plumage  strongly  penciled  with 
light-colored  streaks,  a  yellowish  beak  and  a  cheery 


158  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

whistle.  It  flocks  around  man's  habitations,  swarms 
in  his  parks  and  remains  all  winter.  In  the  breed- 
ing season  it  routs  the  woodpeckers,  bluebirds, 
purple  martins  and  other  good  and  desirable  birds 
out  of  the  nest-boxes  that  have  been  erected  espe- 
cially for  them,  and  takes  possession.  A  flock  of 
starlings  can  easily  dispossess  and  drive  away 
golden- winged  peckers,  and  have  been  seen  to  do  so. 
Fortunately,  the  starling  is  not  a  street-gutter 
scavenger,  like  the  English  sparrow;  but  if  it  con- 
tinues to  drive  away  our  woodpeckers  and  other 
native  birds,  as  it  now  seems  to  be  doing,  its  exter- 
mination will  be  very  much  in  order. 

There  is  one  foreign  wild-animal  pest  that  is  con- 
tinually knocking  at  our  doors,  and  whenever  it 
obtains  a  foothold,  its  presence  will  spell  calamity. 
It  is  the  Mongoose;  a  small  carnivorous  mammal 
about  as  large  as  a  large  mink,  which  finds  it  home 
in  India,  Ceylon,  Burma  and  other  countries  of  the 
Orient.  Although  an  animal  of  small  size,  its  rest- 
less energy,  fierce  temper,  indomitable  courage  and 
physical  activity  enable  it  to  vanquish  birds  and 
some  mammals  of  ten  times  its  own  size. 

In  its  home  country,  India,  the  mongoose — now 
known  in  the  nursery  as  "Rikki-tikki-tavi" — is  a 
fairly  decent  citizen,  and  it  fits  into  the  time-worn 
economy  of  that  region  without  a  jar.  Its  specialty 
is  killing  cobras  and  devouring  them.  In  an  evil 
moment,  the  mongoose  was  introduced  in  the 
islands  of  Barbadoes  and  Jamaica,  to  clear  out  the 


PESTS  AND  THEIR  TREATMENT         159 

rats  that  were  troubling  the  cane-fields.  In  quick 
time  the  rats  were  exterminated,  and  then  the 
mongooses  ambitiously  looked  about  for  more  food 
and  more  worlds  to  conquer.  With  cheerful 
impartiality  they  devoured  the  snakes  and  lizards, 
wild  birds  and  poultry,  cleaned  out  every  living 
thing  that  they  could  catch  and  kill,  and  then  began 
on  the  sugar-cane.  The  last  count  in  this  indict- 
ment seems  hard  to  believe,  but  it  is  a  fact  that  when 
hard-pressed  by  hunger  the  mongoose  freely 
devours  fruit  and  vegetable  food. 

Up  to  this  date,  the  mongoose  has  invaded  and 
become  a  destructive  pest  in  Barbadoes,  Jamaica, 
Cuba,  St.  Vincent,  St.  Lucia,  Trinidad,  Nevis,  Fiji 
and  all  the  larger  islands  of  the  Hawaiian  group. 
Everywhere  its  progress  is  the  same — devouring 
rats,  snakes,  wild  birds,  small  mammals,  poultry, 
fruit  and  vegetables. 

The  fierce  temper,  matchless  courage  and  all- 
embracing  appetite  of  the  mongoose  would  render 
its  transplantation  into  any  of  the  warmer  portions 
of  America  a  terrible  calamity.  In  the  southern 
states,  from  the  Carolinas  to  California,  and  up  the 
Pacific  coast  as  far  as  Seattle,  it  could  live,  thrive 
and  multiply ;  and  the  slaughter  that  it  would  inflict 
upon  our  wild  life,  especially  quail,  grouse  and  wild 
turkeys,  would  drive  the  American  people  crazy. 

The  importation  of  the  mongoose  into  the  United 
States  is  forbidden  by  a  federal  law;  but  for  all 
that,  Lascars  from  eastern  ships  frequently 


160  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

smuggle  them  in,  in  their  bags  of  clothing  or  inside 
their  shirts.  Fancy  an  animal  with  the  murderous 
ferocity  of  a  mink,  the  agility  of  a  squirrel,  the  pene- 
tration of  a  ferret  and  the  cunning  of  a  rat,  infesting 
our  thickets  and  barnyards.  The  mongoose  can  live 
in  the  South  wherever  a  rat,  raccoon  or  opossum  can 
live;  and  not  for  a  million  dollars  could  any  one  of 
the  southern  or  Pacific  states  afford  to  have  a  pair 
of  those  little  gray  fiends  imported  and  set  free.  If 
such  a  calamity  ever  should  occur,  all  wheels  should 
stop  until  the  calamity-breeders  were  caught  and 
pulverized.  If  Herpestes  griseus  ever  finds  a  real 
lodgment  in  any  state  or  national  forest,  or  in  any 
private  forest,  the  forest  rangers  will  then  be  called 
upon  to  fight  the  worst  pest  that  ever  fastened  upon 
our  country. 

In  concluding  this  subject,  we  wish  to  point  out 
the  fact  that  on  the  subject  of  pests  and  alleged 
pests  among  wild  birds  and  mammals,  there  are 
endless  opportunities  for  differences  of  opinion. 
The  handling  of  the  questions  that  will  arise  before 
every  forester  calls  for  calm  judgment  and  a  judi- 
cial mind  that  is  open  to  conviction,  but  is  not  to  be 
swayed  by  every  wave  of  local  resentment  or  emo- 
tion. In  every  case  of  doubt,  the  young  judge  must 
bear  in  mind  the  wise  injunction  of  Holy  Writ, 
which  says :  "Prove  all  things ;  hold  fast  that  which 
is  good." 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN  IN 
WILD  LIFE  PROTECTION 

We  now  have  reached  a  subject  which  is  the  con- 
clusion of  the  whole  matter  of  wild-life  destruction 
and  conservation, — the  duty  of  the  citizen.  Upon 
the  response,  or  the  lack  of  response,  to  the  call  that 
now  is  being  made  to  the  intelligent  conscience  of 
America  and  Europe  hangs  the  fate  of  the  best  and 
most  valuable  wild  life  of  the  world.  If  that  wild 
life  is  not  saved  through  the  initiative  and  the  sacri- 
fices of  private  individuals,  it  will  not  be  saved. 

Let  us  make  a  cold-blooded  analysis  of  the 
situation. 

We  know  that  throughout  all  portions  of  the 
globe  that  are  really  occupied  by  civilized  man,  or 
his  agents,  the  slaughter  of  wild  life  is  proceeding  in 
wholesale  ways  and  at  a  fearful  pace. 

We  know  that  already  a  very  great  many  species 
of  highly  valuable  birds  and  mammals  have  been 
locally  exterminated  over  immense  areas. 

We  know  that  during  our  own  times,  a  number 
of  species  have  been  totally  exterminated,  actually 
under  our  eyes.  The  total  list  is  so  long  that  I  have 
not  even  attempted  to  give  it. 


162  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

We  know  that  the  deadliness  of  firearms  and  the 
number  of  firearms  are  constantly  being  increased. 

We  know  that  the  thirst  for  the  blood  of  wild 
creatures  now  amounts  to  an  insatiable  rage;  a 
"craze"  in  fact,  as  well  as  in  name.  There  are  a 
thousand  rich  men  in  America,  young  and  old,  each 
of  whom  would  willingly  go  to  the  gates  of  hades 
itself  in  order  to  find  his  chosen  game. 

Finally,  we  know  that  of  the  millions  of  men  who 
form  the  army  of  destruction,  not  more  than  5  per 
cent  of  them  care  one  iota  about  our  duty  to  pos- 
terity or  the  claims  of  our  children  and  grand- 
children. In  the  saving  of  game  for  posterity,  by 
their  own  volition  and  unrestrained  by  law,  the 
great  majority  of  men  and  boys  who  shoot,  includ- 
ing all  in  America  and  in  Europe,  have  no  more 
mercy  or  sense  of  honor  toward  wild  life  than  so 
many  gray  wolves  of  the  prairies. 

In  the  United  States  there  are  about  5,000,000 
gunners,  game-hogs  and  sportsmen.  In  that  entire 
multitude  I  venture  to  say  that  there  are  not  over 
2,000  men  or  boys  who  by  reason  of  their  own  high 
principles  could  be  trusted  in  any  country  to  hunt 
wild  game  wholly  unrestrained  by  the  hand  of  the 
law.  I  mention  this  fact,  not  merely  as  a  complaint 
against  the  men  I  accuse,  but  because  it  is  a  fact, 
and  it  now  is  a  factor  of  tremendous  importance  to 
all  those  who  desire  to  preserve  wild  life  as  a  duty 
to  posterity.  In  order  to  plan  our  campaign  of 
offense  against  the  army  of  destruction,  it  is  a  mili- 


DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN    163 

tary  necessity  that  we  should  know  the  composition 
and  numerical  strength  of  the  enemy. 

As  a  sort  of  voucher  for  the  character  of  my 
statements  regarding  the  army  of  destruction,  I 
desire  to  state  that  during  the  past  twenty  years  I 
have  come  in  personal  touch  with  thousands  of  men 
who  shoot  and  thousands  of  real  wild-life  protec- 
tors. My  personal  acquaintance  with  the  men  who 
kill  wild  creatures  covers  the  best  hunting-grounds 
of  two  hemispheres,  and  from  this  acquaintance  I 
have  learned  the  true  sentiments  toward  wild  life  of 
several  thousand  men.  As  this  acquaintance  has 
progressed,  I  have  met  one  surprise  and  shock  after 
another.  My  original,  optimistic  and  too  liberal 
opinion  of  the  sentiments  of  the  men  who  shoot 
game  has  steadily  and  rapidly  gone  down.  To-day, 
I  know  that  there  are  in  the  ranks  of  the  men  who 
shoot  game  a  very  few  men, — let  us  be  very  liberal 
and  say  5  per  cent, — who  are  noble-hearted,  high- 
minded,  awake  to  their  duty  toward  wild  life  and  to 
posterity,  and  willing  to  make  real  sacrifices  in 
order  to  do  their  duty. 

But  the  95  per  cent  are  utterly  contemptuous  of 
their  duty  whenever  the  saving  of  wild  life  involves 
a  real,  personal  sacrifice.  Twenty  per  cent  of  them 
virtuously  stop  shooting  and  hang  up  their  guns — 
when  the  game  is  so  reduced  that  there  is  no  longer 
a  good  bag  to  be  had!  The  remaining  75  per  cent 
will  go  right  on  shooting,  down  to  the  very  last  bird 
of  a  species,  so  long  as  the  law  permits  it! 


164  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

Now,  that  is  a  grim  and  ugly  picture.  I  wish  it 
were  untrue ;  but  it  is  not.  Seventy-five  per  cent  of 
the  men  who  shoot  game  in  America,  in  Europe, 
Asia  and  Africa  are  thoroughly  sordid,  selfish  and 
merciless,  both  toward  the  game  and  toward  pos- 
terity. As  a  rule,  nothing  can  induce  any  of  them 
to  make  any  voluntary  sacrifices  for  the  preserva- 
tion cause.  They  stop  for  nothing  save  the  law. 

The  time  was  when  I  was  proud  of  being  known 
as  a  sportsman ;  but  that  time  has  gone  by,  forever. 
The  conscientious  and  duty-doing  sportsmen  of 
the  world  are  now  so  hopelessly  mixed  up  with  the 
motley  array  of  game-hogs  and  gunners-at-large 
as  to  be  almost  unrecognizable.  There  are  in  the 
United  States  about  six  clubs  of  sportsmen  to 
which  it  is  an  honor  to  belong,  but  that  is  all. 

This  ugly  sore  spot  is  laid  bare  in  order  that  the 
real  friends  of  wild  life  may  know  the  worst,  and 
may  at  the  outset  realize  the  painful  fact  that  the 
men  who  hunt  and  kill  wild  game  are  not  preserv- 
ing wild  game  to-day  for  any  other  reason  than  that 
they  may  kill  it  to-morrow.  The  army  of  destruc- 
tion will  not  preserve  our  birds  and  mammals  as  a 
duty  to  posterity.  The  people  who  do  not  shoot 
have  far  too  long  left  the  protection  of  our  birds 
and  quadrupeds  to  the  men  who  do  shoot!  As  a 
result,  look  at  Ohio,  Illinois,  Indiana,  Iowa, 
Minnesota  and  Kansas, — almost  gameless ! 

We  must  make  an  end  to  the  folly  of  abandoning 
154  species  of  our  finest  birds  to  the  merciless  treat- 


If^B  I 


9    * 

H          2 

>H        ce 
a 


a 

5    1 

c»          C 

•<          3 
>-]  O 

<         S 


DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN     165 

ment  of  the  men  who  kill  game-birds.  Do  sensible 
shepherds  set  wolves  to  guard  their  flocks?  Take  a 
lantern,  like  Diogenes,  go  out,  and  see  if  you  can 
find  a  sportsman  who  voluntarily  makes  any  sacri- 
fice for  the  good  of  the  birds,  or  who  does  more  than 
preserve  to-day  in  order  to  kill  to-morrow.  See  if 
you  can  find  in  your  city  more  than  five  men  who 
shoot  who  will  subscribe  $50  each  in  order  to  pro- 
mote a  movement  to  give  the  quail  remnant  of  the 
state  a  five-year  close  season.  Show  me  the  cities 
of  the  United  States  in  which  a  campaigner  will 
not  wear  out  a  dollar's  worth  of  shoe-leather  for 
every  dollar  that  he  raises  by  subscription  among 
gunners  for  real  wild-life  protection.  I  think  the 
total  number  can  be  counted  on  the  fingers  and 
thumb  of  one  hand. 

The  point  of  this  story  is  that  if  the  remnants  of 
the  wild  life  of  North  America  are  saved  to  pos- 
terity, they  must  be  saved  by  the  efforts  and  the 
sacrifices  of  men  and  women  who  do  not  kill  wild 
creatures. 

We  hold  that  the  real  men  and  women  of  to-day 
owe  to  posterity  a  duty  in  the  preservation  of  wild 
life  than  can  not  conscientiously  be  ignored.  The 
wild  life  of  the  world  is  not  ours,  to  dispose  of 
wholly  as  we  please.  We  hold  it  in  trust,  for  the 
benefit  of  ourselves,  and  equal  benefits  to  those  who 
come  after  us.  As  honorable  guardians  we  have  no 
right  to  waste  and  squander  the  heritage  of  our 


166  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

children  and  grandchildren.  It  is  our  duty  to  stay 
the  hand  that  strives  to  apply  the  torch. 

We  received  from  the  hand  of  Nature  a  marvel- 
ous continent,  overflowing  with  an  abundance  of 
wild  life.  But  we  do  not  own  it  all;  and  it  is  not 
all  ours  to  destroy  if  we  choose.  Nature  was  a 
million  years,  or  more,  in  developing  the  pictur- 
esque moose,  the  odd  mountain  goat  and  the  unique 
antelope.  Shall  we  destroy  and  exterminate  those 
species  in  one  brief  century?  The  young  Ameri- 
cans of  the  year  2014  will  read  of  those  wonderful 
creatures,  and  if  they  find  none  of  them  alive  how 
will  they  characterize  the  men  of  1914?  I,  for  one, 
do  not  wish  in  2014  to  be  classed  with  the  swine  of 
Mauritius  that  exterminated  the  dodo. 

The  most  advanced  educators  of  America  are 
awake  to  the  vital  necessity  of  forest  conservation. 
The  twenty-one  forestry  schools  now  in  existence 
in  our  country  have  for  their  foundations  the  neces- 
sity for  forest  conservation.  Educators  and  states- 
men, and  the  men  of  means  who  support  good 
works,  all  are  awake  to  the  vital  necessity  of  syste- 
matic effort  in  arresting  the  march  of  forest  destruc- 
tion and  providing  for  the  perpetuation  of  our 
forest  wealth.  If  by  neglect  of  duty  we  were  to 
allow  the  vandals  to  sweep  off  all  timber  from  the 
United  States  during  the  present  century,  we 
would  be  regarded  as  monsters.  Fifty  years  hence, 
our  children  would  blush  for  their  parents.  And 
yet,  in  effect,  through  our  mistaken  principles  and 


DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN    167 

the  dominant  influence  of  the  destroyers,  we  are 
now,  at  this  hour,  permitting  and  witnessing  the 
annihilation  of  our  game-birds  and  game-quadru- 
peds, everywhere  in  the  United  States  outside  of  a 
very  few  real  preserves.  If  my  iteration  of  this  fact 
is  likely  to  be  regarded  as  tiresome,  it  should  be 
remembered  that  only  the  quick  awakening  of  this 
nation,  and  the  quick  application  of  stern  remedies, 
can  save  the  patient. 

Perhaps  there  are  those  who  believe  that  the  vari- 
ous state  game  commissions  are  to  be  held  respon- 
sible for  the  saving  of  our  wild  life.  It  may  be  said 
that  they  have  power,  they  have  state  funds  at  their 
command,  they  are  supposed  to  have  the  means  of 
enforcing  the  laws.  In  view  of  the  state  game  com- 
missions, why  (it  may  be  asked)  should  the  duty 
of  saving  the  wild  life  devolve  upon  the  private 
citizen?  Let  us  answer  categorically. 

First.  The  real  business  of  every  state  game 
commission  is  to  enforce  the  laws  that  it  finds  upon 
the  statute  books.  All  other  activities  are  quite 
secondary. 

Second.  Every  wise  state  game  commission  is 
animated  by  a  desire  to  do  for  the  wild  life  of  the 
state  the  very  best  that  it  can  do  under  the  circum- 
stances, and  at  the  same  time  assist  in  securing 
betterments  in  laws  and  in  law  enforcement. 

Third.  No  state  game  commission  dares  go  to 
extremes  in  demanding  more  drastic  protective 
laws,  because  to  do  so  means  incurring  the  open, 


168  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

active  hostility  of  thousands  of  gunners  who  are 
ever  ready  to  fight  for  their  killing  privileges,  even 
unto  the  destruction  of  their  own  game  commission. 
Any  game  commissioner  who  defies  that  body  of 
men,  in  order  to  do  his  duty,  takes  his  official  life  in 
his  hands  and  must  expect  to  meet  his  enemies  in  a 
death  grapple  before  his  legislature. 

Fourth.  It  is  only  the  strongest  of  the  state 
game  commissions,  those  whose  members  are 
assured  of  strong  outside  support,  who  dare  to 
advocate  before  their  legislatures  the  drastic  meas- 
ure which  alone  will  serve  to  save  the  present  wild- 
life situation. 

Private  citizens  and  humanitarian  organizations 
must  not  think  that  all  the  work  and  all  the  fighting 
for  the  saving  of  wild  life  should  be  done,  or  can  be 
done,  by  the  state  game  commissions.  That  demand 
would  be  unfair  and  its  adequate  fulfilment  quite 
impossible.  The  drastic  and  unpopular  measures, 
such  as  stopping  the  sale  of  game,  the  conferring  of 
long  close  seasons  and  the  stoppage  of  all  hunting 
in  the  national  forests,  should  originate  with  outside 
men,  who  are  not  open  to  vengeful  assaults  by 
gunners,  and  who  can  say  what  they  please  in  sup- 
port of  their  cause.  These  independent  promoters 
of  wild-life  protection  measures  always  receive  the 
hearty  support  of  their  respective  state  game  com- 
missions, but  the  arrangement  saves  the  latter  from 
being  converted  into  targets  for  universal  assault. 

I  do  not  mean  to  imply  that  state  game  commis- 


DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN    169 

sions  never  take  the  initiative  in  securing  strong 
measures.  Far  from  it.  Very  many  of  the  best 
measures  now  on  the  statute  books  were  placed 
there  through  their  initiative.  Among  the  fighting 
game  commissions  of  my  close  acquaintance  I  men- 
tion particularly,  with  pride  and  satisfaction,  that 
of  Pennsylvania,  headed  by  Dr.  Kalbfus  and  Com- 
missioner John  M.  Phillips ;  the  New  Jersey  Com- 
mission, headed  by  Mr.  Ernest  Napier;  the  Massa- 
chusetts Commission,  headed  by  Dr.  George  W. 
Field,  and  the  California  Commission,  led  by  Mr. 
Ernest  Schaeffle,  secretary.  At  this  very  hour,  the 
California  Commission  and  its  thousands  of  sup- 
porters are  engaged  in  a  bitter  struggle  against 
the  largest  and  most  shameless  body  of  wild-life 
destroyers  to  be  found  in  any  one  state.  The 
destroyers,  to  the  number  of  30,000  or  more,  are 
determined  to  drain  the  blood  of  the  wild  birds  of 
California  down  to  the  very  last  drop,  regardless 
of  the  rights  of  future  Californians,  regardless  of 
precedents  set  by  other  states  and  in  defiance  of 
the  wishes  of  the  vast  majority  of  the  people  of 
the  state.  A  band  of  alien-born  game-dealers  is 
attempting  to  ride  roughshod  over  the  decent  peo- 
ple of  California,  and  at  the  same  time  destroy  one 
of  the  best  state  game-laws  in  the  United  States. 

Without  the  active  and  constant  support  of 
private  citizens,  the  California  Game  and  Fish 
Commission  would  long  ago  have  been  utterly 
vanquished ;  but  with  that  support,  it  will  continue. 


170  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

In  the  protection  of  wild  life,  it  seems  to  me  that 
the  average  citizen  does  not  even  begin  to  realize 
his  own  power.  I  know  it,  and  a  great  many  other 
men  know  it,  because  we  have  seen  the  results  that 
have  been  accomplished  by  the  private  citizen  on  the 
firing-line.  If  the  defenders  of  wild  life  can  succeed 
in  reaching  and  arousing  the  private  citizen,  the 
wild  life  of  our  country  can  even  yet  be  saved  from 
the  general  annihilation  that  threatens  it.  The 
appeal  for  new  help  must  be  made  to  the  men  and 
women  of  America  who  do  not  go  hunting,  and  who 
do  not  Mil  wild  creatures! 

Speaking  generally,  I  think  that  we  have  gone 
with  the  gunners  about  as  far  as  we  can  go.  I  fear 
that  they  will  concede  no  more  than  they  already 
have  conceded,  and  the  new  measures  they  are 
willing  to  concede  I  believe  are  utterly  inadequate 
to  the  saving  of  our  wild  life.  As  a  class  and  a 
mass,  the  gunners  are  unwilling  to  grant  long  close 
seasons,  of  five  or  ten  years,  and  therefore  we  must 
secure  those  long  close  seasons  without  their  aid! 

We  have  proven  what  can  be  done  by  turning  to 
humanitarians  at  large — the  big-hearted  people 
who  spend  much  of  their  lives  in  building  hospitals, 
endowing  schools  and  caring  for  poor  humanity  in 
general.  These  are  the  men  and  women  who  care 
about  posterity  and  its  rights,  as  well  as  about  the 
needy  ones  of  to-day.  It  was  the  50,000  women  of 
the  United  States,  organized  and  unorganized,  who 
rushed  the  anti-feather-millinery  clause  through  the 


DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN    171 

United  States  Senate  in  spite  of  an  opposing 
majority  in  the  dominant  party.  It  was  the  zoolo- 
gists of  the  University  of  California  who  in  1912 
started  the  fight  to  save  the  birds  of  California,  and 
in  1913  won  a  substantial  victory. 

It  was  the  men  of  the  Camp-Fire  Club  of 
America  who  in  1910,  as  private  citizens,  went 
before  the  United  States  Senate,  demanding  the 
adoption  of  three  rational,  common-sense  measures 
for  the  preservation  of  our  once  valuable  fur-seal 
industry  from  total  annihilation.  It  was  the  final 
adoption  of  those  three  measures  that  did  save  to 
this  nation  a  national  commercial  asset,  worth 
millions  of  dollars.  But  for  the  action  of  that 
Camp-Fire  Club  of  private  citizens  it  is  absolutely 
certain  that  by  this  time  the  fur-seal  remnant  would 
have  been  practically  annihilated. 

Assuming  that  the  duty  of  the  private  citizen 
toward  wild  life  is  conceded,  how  can  that  duty  best 
be  discharged,  and  how  can  every  unit  of  interest 
be  made  effective? 

In  the  first  place,  the  citizen  must  make  up  his 
mind  that  a  real  performance  of  his  duty  will 
involve  some  sacrifices  on  his  part,  either  in  effort  or 
in  money,  or  both.  There  is  no  royal  road  to  the 
perfect  protection  of  wild  life.  Results  that  are 
of  far-reaching  importance,  and  that  are  worth 
while,  always  involve  hard  thinking,  hard  labor  and 
the  expenditure  of  money. 


172  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

The  first  duty  of  the  wild-life  protectionist  is  to 
inform  himself  adequately  regarding  the  leading 
issues  of  the  day  in  the  protection  field.  Knowl- 
edge is  power,  and  a  protagonist  of  wild  life  badly 
informed  is  like  a  knightly  champion  wearing  only 
half  a  suit  of  armor.  Good  sources  of  information 
are  your  state  game  commission,  the  United  States 
Biological  Survey  of  the  Department  of  Agricul- 
ture, the  magazines  for  sportsmen,  two  books 
by  Mr.  E.  H.  Forbush  of  Boston,  and  another 
book  entitled  "Our  Vanishing  Wild  Life."  Any 
man  or  woman,  anywhere  in  the  United  States,  who 
is  willing  to  lend  a  hand  but  is  at  loss  to  know  what 
to  do,  need  only  declare  that  willingness  in  order  to 
be  advised  what  cause  to  espouse. 

The  accomplishment  of  a  great  reform  nearly 
always  means  the  enactment  of  new  laws  in  the  face 
of  strong  opposition.  Every  great  reform  always 
treads  on  a  great  many  toes;  and  the  owners  of 
many  of  those  toes  will  not  only  cry  out,  but  many 
of  them  will  fight.  A  bill  to  stop  the  sale  of  game 
always  arouses  the  opposition  of  the  market- 
gunners,  the  game-dealers  and  the  hotel  and  restau- 
rant interests.  The  game-dealers  are  natural 
fighters,  and  in  fighting  for  their  selling  privileges 
they  hire  lawyers  in  abundance  and  spend  money 
liberally.  As  business  men,  they  know  how  to 
appeal  to  the  business  men  in  any  legislature,  and 
their  opposition  is  a  very  serious  matter.  The  way 
to  counteract  it  is  to  overwhelm  it,  in  the  legislature 


DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN    173 

and  before  the  governor,  with  appeals  and  demands 
from  the  press  and  from  men  and  women  who  have 
no  selfish  interests  to  serve  and  no  axes  to  grind,  in 
behalf  of  imperiled  nature.  Men  who  are  moved 
to  leave  their  mirth  and  their  employment,  and 
journey  to  their  state  capitol  to  appear  at  hearings 
before  committees  in  behalf  of  the  wild  life  of  the 
people  at  large,  always  command  very  respectful 
attention,  and  in  about  nineteen  cases  out  of  every 
twenty,  if  the  cause  of  the  people  is  adequately 
represented,  the  friends  of  wild  life  do  not  appeal  in 
vain. 

At  this  point  I  wish  to  offer  an  observation  in 
regard  to  legislative  campaign  work.  There  is 
lobbying  and  lobbying — two  distinct  kinds.  The 
common  variety  is  that  which  has  an  ax  to  grind,  a 
personal  interest  to  promote  or  protect,  a  com- 
mercial end  to  serve.  With  this  brand,  many  legis- 
lators have  little  patience,  and  the  ax-grinding 
lobbyist  often  finds  his  way  blocked  by  stern  laws 
and  rules. 

But  the  lobbyist  who  goes  up  for  the  good  of  the 
people  is  in  a  very  different  class.  His  lobbying  is 
not  only  respectable,  but  honorable ;  and  to  him  all 
doors  are  open.  He  is  treated  well;  always  with 
respect,  frequently  with  deference.  He  has  a 
powerful  advantage  over  the  man  who  for  the  sake 
of  making  more  money  is  begging  that  bird- 
slaughter  be  continued.  I  think  that  our  clause  for 
the  exclusion  of  feather  millinery  was  inserted  in 


174  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

the  tariff  bill  partly  because  of  the  fact  that  its 
advocates  were  the  only  persons  who  appeared 
before  the  Ways  and  Means  Committee  of  the 
House  who  were  not  seeking  to  serve  personal  and 
selfish  ends!  The  novelty  of  that  appearance  was 
so  great  that  our  appeal  had  to  be  granted! 

I  have  known  a  few  state  game  commissioners 
and  others  who,  in  their  early  experiences,  have 
hesitated  to  enter  legislative  lobbies  in  behalf  of 
their  measures.  To  all  persons  who  feel  inclined  to 
shrink  from  this  line  of  duty  toward  wild  life  we 
may  paraphrase  an  ancient  and  excellent  precept, 
thus :  There  is  no  excellence  without  great  lobbying. 
I  have  taken  many  chances  in  various  legislative 
halls,  and  most  of  all  in  Congress.  I  have  felt  it 
my  duty  to  appear  before  legislative  committees  of 
a  number  of  states,  and  never  once  have  I  been 
accused  of  intrusion,  or  violation  of  state  rights,  or 
of  advocating  a  bad  cause. 

"  Thrice  is  he  arm'd  that  hath  his  quarrel  just; 
And  he  but  naked,  though  lock'd  up  in  steel, 
Whose  conscience  with  injustice  is  corrupted." 

Every  forester  in  the  United  States  should  feel 
that  lobbying  for  conservation  causes  is  the  very 
highest  line  of  duty  in  which  it  is  possible  for  him 
to  engage.  No  man  can  so  well  advocate  the  repeal 
of  a  bad  forest  or  game  law,  or  the  enactment  of  a 
good  law,  as  the  man  who  comes  in  personal  contact 
with  its  working  effect.  Legislators  like  to  have 


DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN    175 

come  before  them  practical  men,  who  know  all  the 
facts,  and  who  know  whereof  they  speak.  I  have 
in  mind  a  celebrated  case  wherein  an  international 
fishery  commission  sent  to  Congress  a  wrong  con- 
clusion. Three  hard-handed  fishermen  of  Put-in- 
Bay  journeyed  down  to  Washington,  taking  with 
them  a  pail  of  water,  three  live  fish  and  a  section  of 
fish-net.  With  that  simple  outfit  in  a  five-minute 
demonstration  before  a  Congressional  committee 
they  upset  forever  the  unwise  conclusions  of  an 
international  commission,  and  the  whole  subject 
was  reopened  on  a  new  basis. 

It  is  impossible  for  me  to  state  with  sufficient 
emphasis  the  necessity  for  immediate  action  and 
quick  results  in  the  saving  of  wild  life.  The  assaults 
that  are  being  made  on  the  forests  of  the  United 
States  are  in  no  way  comparable  with  it.  At  one 
swoop  the  creation  of  vast  national  forest  reserves 
arrests  the  hands  of  the  timber  destroyer;  but  there 
are  no  such  corresponding  reserved  areas  for  wild 
life.  Beside  the  vast  extent  of  the  reserved  forests, 
the  national  parks  and  game-preserves  are  lost  in 
utter  insignificance. 

Already  a  great  amount  of  basic  educational 
work  for  wild  life  has  been  done.  There  are  few 
intelligent  persons  to  whom  the  subject  is  new.  The 
public  mind  now  is  so  sensitive  to  impressions 
regarding  wild  life  it  is  possible  to  secure,  by  a  few 
months  of  effort,  results  that  even  five  years  ago 
were  wildly  impossible.  Our  task  to-day  is  not  the 


176  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

educating  of  the  masses,  but  the  arousing  of  the 
conscientious  citizen  to  the  point  of  positive  action. 

In  these  days  we  know  not  who  will  be  the  next 
man  to  develop  into  a  leader  of  conservation  cam- 
paigns. This  being  the  case,  it  becomes  of  interest 
to  know  what  the  young  conservationist  can  do 
when  the  mantle  of  leadership  has  fallen  upon  him. 

The  greatest  coups  are  to  be  made  in  securing 
the  enactment  of  new  laws  that  produce  sweeping 
reforms.  To  the  young  leader  I  would  say,  never 
choose  a  trivial  cause,  but  instead,  choose  each  time 
one  that  is  worth  while  to  grown  men.  It  takes  but 
little  more  time  to  pass  a  large  bill  than  is  necessary 
for  a  small  one;  and  big  men  always  prefer  to  be 
identified  with  big  measures.  Do  not  rush  to  the 
legislature  with  a  demand  for  a  law  to  permit  the 
taking  of  bullheads  with  June-bugs  in  the  creeks 
of  your  township,  or  to  give  your  county  a  specially 
early  open  season  on  quail  in  order  that  your 
brother  may  try  his  new  gun  before  he  goes  back  to 
college.  Do  not  propose  any  local  legislation;  for 
bills  of  that  species  are  coming  strongly  into 
disfavor  with  lawmakers. 

One  determined  man  who  is  reasonably  intelli- 
gent can  promote  and  direct  a  movement  that  will 
secure  the  enactment  of  a  new  law,  provided  he  is 
industrious  and  sufficiently  determined.  The  man 
who  starts  a  movement  must  make  up  his  mind  to 
follow  it  up,  direct  its  fortunes,  stay  with  it  when 
the  storms  of  criticism  and  opposition  beat  upon  it, 


DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN    177 

and  never  give  up  until  it  is  signed  by  the  Governor 
or  the  President.  A  leader  must  be  willing  to  sacri- 
fice his  personal  convenience,  the  most  of  his  pleas- 
ures, and  keep  at  his  work  when  his  friends  are 
asleep  or  at  the  theater. 

The  first  step  in  starting  a  new  campaign  is  to 
raise  the  fund  with  which  to  meet  its  expenses. 
Expense  money  is  absolutely  necessary,  or  the 
amount  of  printing,  posting,  telegraphing  and 
traveling  will  be  extremely  limited.  Good  men 
who  give  their  time  and  gray  matter  must  not  be 
expected  or  permitted  to  pay  their  expenses  from 
their  own  pockets.  A  little  later  we  will  have  more 
to  say  on  this  point. 

A  short  bill  can  be  drawn  by  your  own  member 
of  the  lawmaking  body;  but  a  long  one,  that 
requires  study  and  research,  must  be  drawn  by  a 
good  lawyer,  who  must  be  paid  something  for  his 
time.  Every  bill  should  recognize  existing  laws, 
either  to  repeal  or  to  amend,  and  it  must  be  either 
prohibitory  or  permissive.  This  means  that  the 
new  law  desired  must  say  what  shall  not  be  done, 
or  else  what  may  be  done  lawfully,  all  other  acts 
being  forbidden.  I  prefer  the  prohibitive  form,  as 
being  the  more  impressive,  and  also  most  easily 
provided  with  penalties. 

As  soon  as  a  bill  is  introduced  in  a  legislative 
body  it  is  referred  to  a  committee,  for  consideration 
and  report;  and  a  favorable  committee  report  is 
highly  essential  to  success. 


178  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

It  is  at  this  point  that  the  citizen  at  large  looms 
upon  the  scene  and  begins  to  play  his  part.  The 
leader  will  ask  the  committee  for  a  public  hearing, 
which  will  be  granted,  for  a  date  fixed  well  in 
advance.  Then  the  leader  sends  out  his  printed 
matter,  broadcast,  and  calls  upon  the  people  at 
large  for  support.  On  the  date  fixed  for  the  hear- 
ing, a  large  delegation  appears,  representing  all 
sorts  and  conditions  of  men.  A  list  of  speakers  has 
been  carefully  prepared  and  handed  to  the  sponsor 
of  the  measure.  The  opposition  should  be  heard 
first,  and  in  nine  cases  out  of  ten,  the  opposition 
will  contain  chiefly  men  who  have  private  interests 
to  serve,  and  their  attorneys. 

From  this  point  onward,  the  friends  of  the 
measure,  all  over  the  state  or  the  nation,  should 
write  to  their  representatives  in  the  legislature  or 
in  Congress,  stating  their  views  of  the  bill, — 
always  in  their  own  language  and  never  in  machine- 
made  letters, — asking  that  it  be  supported.  The 
press  must  be  vigorously  invited  and  urged  to  help 
the  cause,  and  all  necessary  facts  must  be  furnished 
in  order  that  the  editorial  mind  may  be  able  to 
judge  the  case  on  its  own  merits. 

The  larger  the  measure,  the  greater  is  the  cer- 
tainty that  it  will  affect  adversely  some  large  com- 
mercial interests,  or  that  it  will  interfere  with  the 
special  privileges  of  a  large  class  of  selfish  persons. 
Every  large  measure  is  certain  to  be  opposed  by 
numerous  enemies.  When  the  time  arrives  to  advo- 


DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN    179 

cate  before  Congress  the  conversion  of  every 
national  forest  into  a  national  game-preserve,  there 
will  be  a  great  outcry  from  the  resident  hunters 
who  for  years  have  been  exploiting  those  forests  as 
their  private  hunting-grounds.  Then  must  the 
People-at-Large,  the  great,  silent,  sleepy,  but  irre- 
sistible mass,  arouse,  shake  off  their  lethargy,  and 
unite  in  demanding  their  rights,  in  behalf  of  them- 
selves, and  posterity.  The  enemies  of  conservation, 
who  wish  to  see  Nature  stripped  bare  of  her 
resources  for  the  benefit  of  their  "constituents,"  will 
declaim  and  protest,  just  as  they  did  against  the 
enactment  of  the  federal  migratory  bird  law.  But 
they  will  be  overwhelmed,  just  as  its  fifteen  oppo- 
nents in  the  House  of  Representatives  were  over- 
whelmed in  May,  1913,  when  they  attempted  to 
block  the  wheels  of  the  car  of  Progress  on  which 
the  McLean  bill  was  rolling  through  the  United 
States  Congress.  That  must  be  our  next  great 
victory,  and  in  the  winning  of  it,  thousands  of 
strong  college  men  will  be  needed  on  the  firing-line. 
Will  the  men  of  Yale  take  the  initiative  in  enlisting 
that  contingent,  and  in  helping  to  raise  the  flag  of 
conservation  higher  than  ever  before — so  high,  in 
fact,  that  it  will  make  the  destructionists  dizzy  to 
look  at  it? 

Let  the  citizen  remember  that  several  great  wild- 
life protection  causes  have  been  finally  won  through 
Congress,  and  through  state  legislatures,  by  the 
personal  letters  of  constituents  addressed  in  earnest 


180  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

appeal  to  their  representatives  and  senators.  Any 
cause  that  can  command  the  support  of  20,000  or 
30,000,  or  100,000  strong  personal  letters  from 
constituents  is  backed  by  a  force  that  i&  well-nigh 
irresistible.  Sometimes  "the  voice  of  the  people" 
is  indeed  "the  voice  of  God."  In  the  passage  of  the 
Lacey  bird  law,  the  Bayne  law,  the  McLean- Weeks 
law  and  the  plumage  law,  the  opposition  of  private 
and  commercial  interests  was  in  the  end  completely 
overwhelmed  by  the  tens  of  thousands  of  earnest 
letters  of  appeal  and  demand  that  flowed  in  an 
irresistible  tide  upon  the  lawmakers.  I  wish  that 
the  college  men  of  America  would  make  clear  to  all 
persons  in  their  spheres  of  influence  the  power  of 
the  original  personal  letter  from  constituent  to 
representative.  At  the  same  time,  it  should  be 
remembered  that  "machine-made"  letters  always 
are  detectable;  they  are  worse  than  useless,  and  it 
is  right  that  they  should  be  so. 

There  is  another  phase  of  citizen  duty  toward 
wild  life  that  I  approach  with  a  feeling  of  hopeless 
despair.  It  is  the  raising  of  campaign  funds.  I 
present  it  merely  as  a  matter  of  form,  and  not  at  all 
in  the  hope  of  accomplishing  even  secondary  results. 

In  all  campaigns  for  the  protection  and  increase 
of  wild  life,  the  need  for  campaign  cash  is  very 
great.  I  have  seen  three  great  causes  won  because 
each  one  had  an  adequate  campaign  fund.  I  have 
seen  several  worthy  movements  languish  and  die  of 
financial  starvation.  At  this  moment  I  know  of 


DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN    181 

three  causes  of  moment  that  are  almost  destitute 
of  funds.  Last  winter  the  war-chest  of  the  defend- 
ers of  wild  life  in  Virginia,  where  a  gallant  fight 
was  being  made,  was  down  to  $18,  until  it  was 
replenished  by  the  New  York  Zoological  Society. 

The  trouble  is  that  very,  very  few  men  and 
women,  even  among  the  fabulously  rich,  are  willing 
to  give  anything  substantial  to  the  wild-life  cause. 
As  a  result,  our  cause  is  financially  on  a  half- 
starvation  basis,  and  seems  likely  to  remain  so.  On 
this  whole  continent,  only  two  persons  ever  have 
given  sums  for  the  wild-life  cause  that  require  six 
figures  to  express  them.  Mr.  Albert  Wilcox  gave, 
in  his  will,  $322,000  to  the  National  Association  of 
Audubon  Societies,  as  an  endowment  fund  for  its 
work;  and  Mrs.  Russell  Sage  paid  $150,000  for 
Marsh  Island,  Louisiana,  as  a  permanent  bird  sanc- 
tuary for  the  winter  use  of  northern  migratory 
birds.  To  other  wild-life  protection  causes  Mrs. 
Sage  has  given  at  least  $50,000  more.  From  these 
sums,  the  cash  gifts  for  wild  life  fall  at  one  deep 
plunge  down  to  $10,000,  and  not  more  than  ten 
persons  ever  have  given  so  much  as  that  sum. 
Perhaps  twenty  persons  have  given  $5,000  each, 
about  forty  have  given  $1,000  each  and  from  that 
the  figures  rapidly  dwindle  down  to  $5,  $2  and  $1. 

Everyone  knows  that  in  war  the  men  in  the 
trenches  and  on  the  firing-line  are  not  supposed  to 
provide  the  sinews  of  war  that  come  from  the  pay- 
master's chest.  In  civilized  wars,  the  noncom- 


182  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

batants  provide  the  war  funds.  In  our  warfare  for 
the  saving  of  wild  life,  the  men  on  the  firing-line 
who  battle  for  great  new  measures  usually  are  com- 
pelled to  finance  themselves.  Much  of  the  time 
that  they  should  spend  in  harassing  the  enemy  is 
spent  in  begging,  hat  in  hand,  for  the  few  dollars 
that  are  necessary  to  pay  campaign  expenses  from 
day  to  day. 

The  trouble  is  that,  as  a  rule,  the  men  who  kill 
wild  life  sullenly  refuse  to  make  any  real  sacrifices 
in  cash  for  the  benefit  of  the  faunas  they  have  helped 
to  destroy;  and  the  people  who  do  not  kill  wild 
creatures  are  interested  in  other  causes.  The 
latter  feel  that  they  are  not  to  blame  for  any  of  the 
destruction,  and  they  do  not  understand  why  they 
should  be  expected  to  make  sacrifices  for  wild  life. 

Unfortunately,  the  need  of  money  for  campaign 
expenses  in  behalf  of  wild  life  never  before  has  been 
one-half  as  great  as  it  is  now.  The  destroyers  of 
wild  life  are  wide  awake  to  the  dangers  that 
threaten  their  killing  privileges,  and  they  have 
acquired  the  habit  of  furnishing  money  and  hiring 
attorneys  to  oppose  the  cause  of  protection. 

The  friends  of  wild  life  need  money  in  every 
campaign.  They  need  it  to  pay  the  cost  of  printing, 
postage,  telegraphing,  traveling  expenses,  and  ser- 
vices that  can  not  be  procured  for  nothing.  With 
sufficient  campaign  funds  and  reasonably  able 
generalship,  any  wild-life  cause  can  be  won !  I  urge 
the  friends  of  wild  life  to  acquire  the  habit  of  giving 


DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN    183 

money  for  campaign  purposes,  in  liberal  figures, 
and  of  asking  others  to  give.  To  beg  for  a  good 
cause  of  any  kind  is  not  only  right  but  honorable; 
for  it  is  ten  times  more  painful  to  ask  for  many 
subscriptions  than  it  is  to  make  one  subscription  and 
thereby  purchase  immunity.  Any  man  can  fight 
for  wild  life,  but  it  takes  a  real  hero  to  raise  money 
for  it  by  subscription. 

The  saving  of  the  wild  life  and  forests  of  the 
world  is  a  duty  that  by  no  means  is  confined  to  a 
small  group  of  persons  who  work  for  nothing  and 
subsist  on  their  own  enthusiasm.  The  saving  of 
the  fauna  of  a  nation  is  a  national  task.  It  is  liter- 
ally everybody's  business.  It  rests  upon  the  shoul- 
ders of  the  educated  and  the  intelligent,  and  the 
motives  that  prompt  it  are  not  found  in  the  breasts 
of  the  sordid  and  the  ignorant.  The  educated 
people  of  the  United  States  and  Canada  now  are 
called  upon  to  protect  their  own  from  the  Goths 
and  Vandals  of  the  army  of  destruction  who  are 
strangers  to  the  higher  sentiments. 

In  some  of  the  states  of  our  country,  it  is  worse 
than  futile  to  rely  for  the  saving  of  wild  life  upon 
the  men  who  kill.  They  are  devoted  to  slaughter, 
and  it  is  a  waste  of  time  to  talk  with  them.  Turn 
we,  therefore,  to  the  great  body  of  humane  men  and 
women  who  do  not  go  hunting  and  who  do  not  kill. 

We  have  a  right  to  demand  services  for  this 
great  cause  from  the  educators,  the  scientists,  the 
zoologists  in  particular;  from  lawyers  and  doctors 


184  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

and  merchants ;  and  above  all,  from  editors.  Intelli- 
gent people  who  ignore  this  cause  fall  short  of  their 
duty  to  humanity  and  to  themselves.  The  universi- 
ties and  colleges,  the  high  schools  and  the  normal 
schools,  all  have  it  in  their  power  to  exert  an  enor- 
mous influence  in  this  cause.  Think  what  it  would 
mean  if  30  per  cent  of  the  annual  graduates  of  all 
American  institutions  of  learning  should  go  forth 
well  informed  on  the  details  of  this  work,  and  fully 
resolved  to  spread  the  doctrine  of  conservation, 
far  and  near!  And  think,  also,  what  it  would 
mean  if  even  one-half  the  men  and  women  who  earn 
their  daily  bread  in  the  field  of  zoology  and  nature- 
study  should  elect  to  make  this  cause  their  own! 
And  yet,  I  tell  you  that  in  spite  of  an  appeal  for 
help,  dating  as  far  back  as  1898,  fully  90  per  cent 
of  the  zoologists  of  America  stick  closely  to  their 
desk-work,  soaring  after  the  infinite  and  diving 
after  the  unfathomable,  but  never  spending  a  dollar 
or  lifting  an  active  finger  on  the  firing-line  in 
defense  of  wild  life.  I  have  talked  to  these  men 
until  I  am  tired;  and  the  most  of  them  seem  to  be 
hopelessly  sodden  and  apathetic. 

While  this  is  equally  true  of  educators  at  large, 
the  fact  is  they  are  far  less  to  blame  for  present  con- 
ditions than  are  many  American  zoologists.  The 
latter  have  upon  them  obligations  such  as  no  man 
can  escape  without  being  shamefully  derelict. 
Fancy  an  ornithologist  studying  feather  arrange- 
ment, or  avian  osteology,  or  the  distribution  of  sub- 


DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN    185 

species,  while  the  guns  of  the  game-hogs  are  roaring 
all  around  him  and  strings  of  bobolinks  are  coming 
into  the  markets  for  sale!  Yet  that  is  precisely 
what  is  happening  in  many  portions  of  America 
to-day;  and  I  tell  you  that  if  the  birds  of  North 
America  are  saved,  it  will  not  be  by  the  ornitholo- 
gists at  large.  But  fortunately  there  are  a  few 
noble  exceptions  to  this  ghastly  general  rule. 

The  people  of  America  who  have  money  to  give 
away  to  causes  for  the  betterment  of  humanity 
should  consider  the  campaigns  that  are  being  made, 
and  that  should  be  made,  to  save  the  remainder  of 
our  wild  life  for  the  benefit  of  mankind  at  large. 
This  cause  is  entitled  to  a  share  of  betterment 
funds,  and  it  should  not  be  compelled  to  live  on  the 
husks  and  crumbs  that  fall  from  the  million-dollar 
tables  of  other  causes.  The  sight  of  scores  of  causes 
and  institutions  struggling  with  undigested  wealth, 
while  the  wild  life  of  the  world  is  being  swept  away, 
and  its  defenders  are  working  on  a  starvation  basis, 
is  fairly  maddening. 

With  a  fair  amount  of  campaign  money,  the  wild 
life  of  the  world  could  be  saved:  but  the  giving  of 
money  to  that  cause  is  not  fashionable.  Is  it  because 
the  individual  glory  to  be  derived  from  it  is  too 
small  ?  There  are  in  all  the  world  only  three  endow- 
ment funds  for  the  benefit  of  wild  life.  One  con- 
tains $340,000,  another,  $51,205  and  the  third, 
$5,000.  Perhaps  by  the  time  the  wild  birds  and 


186  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

beasts  are  all  gone,  and  it  is  entirely  too  late,  some 
one  will  devote  a  really  large  sum  to  salvage  work. 

Before  leaving  this  branch  of  our  subject,  I 
desire  to  reveal  one  fact  that  may  be  useful. 
The  college-graduate-with-a-keen-conscience  never 
knows  when  a  public  need  will  leap  upon  his  shoul- 
ders and  settle  there,  to  be  dislodged  only  through 
personal  effort  in  the  line  of  imperative  duty.  He 
never  knows  when  he  will  be  seized  and  impressed 
into  service  by  a  cause.  The  chances  are  that 
the  men  of  the  forest  schools  will  be  driven  by 
conservation  causes. 

It  is  a  popular  idea  that  to  solicit  funds  by  sub- 
scription is  a  painful  task.  Carried  out  beyond 
two  digits,  it  does  become  so.  Under  ordinary  cir- 
cumstances, there  is  no  calling  more  honorable  than 
soliciting  funds  for  good  causes.  The  solicitor  has 
no  occasion  to  apologize  because  he  is  asking.  It  is 
the  solicited  who  apologizes  when  he  is  unable  to 
respond.  During  the  past  five  years  I  have  raised 
much  wild-life  money  by  subscription,  and  I  have 
received  scores  of  letters  (with  checks  enclosed) 
thanking  me  for  having  given  the  writers  an  oppor- 
tunity to  join  in  good  work  for  wild  life!  Write  a 
strong  circular,  state  the  case  clearly  and  ask  with 
brisk  confidence  that  the  person  addressed  will  bear 
his  share  of  the  general  burden.  In  a  thoroughly 
good  cause,  a  strongly  worded  printed  circular, 
sent  under  seal,  is  a  good  method.  For  separating 
the  sheep  from  the  goats,  there  is  nothing  equal  to 


DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN    187 

the  raising  of  funds  for  wild-life  protection.  It  is 
a  blood  test  to  which  only  the  red-blooded  and  the 
high-minded  ever  respond. 

The  greatest  of  all  obstacles  in  the  way  of  the 
conservator  of  wild  life  and  forests  is  the  deadly 
American  spirit  of  restless  and  heedless  wasteful- 
ness. The  American  continent  has  been  developed 
by  men  who,  time  after  time,  settled  down,  robbed 
the  soil  of  its  fertility,  then  moved  on  westward  to 
new  lands.  The  American  national  spirit  is  for 
quick,  wasteful  conquest,  not  calm  and  patient  con- 
servation. It  is  our  way  to  cut  down,  slash  up,  kill, 
lay  waste,  get  rich  quick, — and  a  fig  for  posterity! 
Our  rich  men  strive  to  leave  great  fortunes  in  cash 
to  their  children,  but  they  rarely  reforest  or  restore 
wild  life.  That  is  too  slow  for  them. 

The  forest  champions  of  America  now  are  mak- 
ing a  Herculean  effort  to  instill  into  the  American 
mind  the  idea  of  the  systematic  replanting  of  de- 
nuded forest  lands:  but  it  is  like  rolling  a  huge 
stone  up  a  steep  hill.  Quite  recently  I  journeyed 
through  several  hundred  miles  of  southern  pine 
forests,  always  watching  for  signs  of  systematic 
reforestation,  but  not  once  did  I  see  a  pine,  young 
or  old,  that  clearly  appeared  to  have  been  planted 
by  the  hand  of  man.  In  the  denuded  forest  areas 
of  Florida,  Georgia,  the  Carolinas  and  Virginia, 
nature  was  bravely  struggling  to  restore  what  man 
had  greedily  destroyed,  but  not  once  did  I  see  a 


188  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

single  acre  on  which  nature  was  being  assisted  by 
man. 

None  are  so  blind  as  those  who  will  not  see.  It 
is  impossible  to  place  ideas  mechanically  within 
empty  minds.  Sometimes  the  inertia  of  ignorance 
is  as  fixed  and  immovable  as  the  foundations  of 
Mount  Washington.  At  other  times,  it  slowly 
yields  to  persistent  education.  Just  how  many 
generations  are  necessary  to  transform  a  confirmed 
tree-cutter  into  a  true  forest  conservator  remains 
to  be  seen. 

The  preservation  and  increase  of  the  forests  is 
a  very  different  matter  from  the  salvage  of  the  birds 
and  beasts.  Man  and  nature,  jointly  or  severally, 
can  replant  a  denuded  forest,  and  the  lapse  of  time 
will  bring  the  renaissance.  With  forests,  there  is  a 
modicum  of  time  available  in  which  to  act.  With 
wild  life,  it  is  a  case  of  now  or  never.  A  fauna  once 
destroyed  can  not  be  brought  back!  The  destroyers 
of  wild  life  are  so  omnipresent,  persistent  and 
relentless  that  the  defenders  and  preservers  must 
act  at  once,  or  very  soon  it  will  be  hopelessly  too 
late.  No  power  on  earth  can  repopulate  China  with 
the  wild  species  that  were 'hers  when  she  had  forests, 
and  before  the  era  of  extermination. 

Of  the  many  blighting  influences  that  bear  down 
upon  wild  life,  and  promote  its  destruction,  one  of 
the  most  serious  is  local  disregard  for  protective 
laws,  and  the  disloyalty  of  juries,  and  sometimes 
of  judges,  also,  to  their  sworn  duty.  In  the  western 


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DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN    189 

third  of  the  United  States,  and  especially  on  the 
so-called  "frontier,"  it  is  a  common  occurrence  for 
a  sympathetic  jury  of  neighbors  and  friends  to 
acquit  a  red-handed  violator  of  the  game-law  by 
saying:  "Not  guilty!  He  needed  the  meat." 

Sometimes  a  judge  on  the  bench  calmly  elects  to 
turn  loose  without  punishment  a  man  who  should 
pay  the  full  penalty  for  his  misdeeds  and  his  con- 
tempt of  the  law.  The  latest  and  most  disappoint- 
ing case  occurred  in  Key  West,  Florida.  Three 
men  were  caught  in  the  act  of  raiding  the  protected 
egret  rookery  at  Alligator  Bay,  on  the  west  coast  of 
Florida.  By  the  expenditure  of  great  efforts  and 
much  public  funds,  the  offenders  were  finally  taken 
to  Key  West,  a  distance  of  about  one  hundred 
miles.  It  is  stated  that  the  judge  before  whom  they 
should  have  been  tried  kindly  advised  that  the 
accused  men  be  set  free.  Recognizing  the  utter 
futility  of  bringing  the  men  to  trial,  the  game 
wardens  and  the  prosecuting  attorney  had  no 
recourse  but  to  abandon  the  case.  The  men  were 
set  free;  and  now  it  is  reported  that  they  have 
announced  their  intention  to  "clean  out"  that 
rookery  in  the  coming  nesting  season. 

Any  community  which  tolerates  contempt  for  law, 
and  law-defying  judges,  is  in  a  degenerate  state, 
bordering  on  barbarism;  and  in  the  United  States 
there  are  literally  thousands  of  such  communities! 
The  thoroughness  with  which  one  lawless  individual 
who  goes  unwhipped  by  justice  can  create  contempt 


190  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

for  law  and  demoralize  a  whole  neighborhood  is 
both  remarkable  and  deplorable.  That  way  lies 
anarchy.  In  such  a  community,  any  upright  man 
who  boldly  denounces  lawlessness  and  upholds  the 
majesty  of  the  law  is  not  only  the  best  citizen  of  that 
community,  but  he  is  also  a  public  benefactor. 

About  60  per  cent  of  the  American  people  are 
like  sheep — always  ready  to  follow  the  boldest 
leader  and  be  swayed  by  the  strongest  man.  This 
being  true,  the  duty  of  the  good  citizen  to  openly 
and  insistently  demand  the  observance  of  the  law 
is,  in  every  lawless  community,  quite  as  impera- 
tive as  his  duty  to  cast  his  ballot  on  election  day. 

One  determined  man  who  is  right  can  face 
without  fear  one  hundred  who  are  wrong.  Such  a 
man  has  the  right  to  demand  the  support  of  all 
good  citizens.  Were  I  a  game  warden,  or  a  forester 
with  a  game  warden's  authority,  I  would,  as  my 
first  act,  print  and  post  a  proclamation  calling  upon 
all  men  of  lawless  tendencies  to  obey  the  law,  and 
also  calling  upon  all  good  citizens  to  give  me  their 
active  support  in  securing  obedience  to  the  law. 

In  Putnam  County,  New  York,  in  1913  we  saw  a 
county-wide  vote-selling  industry  of  many  years 
standing  and  great  popularity  absolutely  stamped 
out  through  the  moral  courage,  determination  and 
aggressive  industry  of  one  private  individual,  Mr. 
Thomas  M.  Upp,  who  accomplished  his  task  almost 
unaided,  save  by  the  local  newspapers. 

A  lawless  community,  whether  in  New  York  or 


DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN    191 

in  Alaska,  is  to  all  good  citizens  a  source  of  irrita- 
tion, a  public  nuisance  and  a  danger  that  requires 
abatement.  That  abatement  should  be  peaceable 
if  possible,  but  forcible  if  necessary.  If  education 
and  appeal  can  not  work  the  necessary  reform,  then 
the  stern  execution  of  the  law  is  the  next  recourse. 
It  is  high  time  that  sneering  at  game  laws  and  game 
wardens  should  be  regarded  as  intolerable,  and 
sternly  suppressed;  for  contempt  for  law  usually 
breeds  serious  trouble  for  some  one. 

When  left  wholly  to  himself,  savage  man  does 
not  inflict  useless  wholesale  slaughter  upon  the  wild 
beasts  and  birds;  but  in  the  ranks  of  civilized  men 
there  are  degenerates  who  love  slaughter  and  pro- 
mote it  with  joy  and  exultation.  If  it  happens  to  be 
quite  useless,  no  matter!  At  all  events,  it  makes  a 
thrilling  story. 

Henceforth,  our  hope  for  arresting  the  efforts  of 
the  slaughterers  must  rest  upon  the  hitherto  silent 
majority  of  men,  and  women  also,  who  abhor 
slaughter,  and  do  not  kill.  They  outnumber  the 
army  of  destruction  at  least  9  to  1.  Their  poten- 
tial influence  is  beyond  the  reach  of  calculation. 
They  can  do  for  wild  life  well  nigh  whatever  they 
choose.  The  time  has  come  when  they  must  be 
called  upon  to  take  up  their  share  of  the  white 
man's  burden,  and  bear  it  to  the  goal.  No  man  who 
cares  a  pin's  price  for  the  heritage  of  his  children 
can  remain  indifferent  to  the  cause  of  wild-life 
preservation  or  forest  conservation.  Each  man  of 


192  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

conscience  may  be  permitted  to  take  his  choice  of 
three  kinds  of  tasks,  three  species  of  burdens.  They 
are  labor,  publicity  or  money;  and  he  who  chooses 
one  of  these,  and  bears  it  like  a  man,  may  claim 
immunity  from  the  other  two. 

It  occurs  to  me  to  insert  here  a  word  of  advice  to 
every  forester  and  teacher  of  foresters.  Many  a 
sportsman  will  say:  "I  have  no  occasion  to  aid  your 
cause.  I  contribute  annually,  in  the  form  of  a  fee 
for  my  hunting  license." 

Now  that  plea  is  absolutely  hollow.  The  sports- 
man who  pays  annually  the  magnificent  sum  of  $1, 
or  even  $50,  for  a  local  license  to  hunt  is  merely 
contributing  to  the  pay  of  wardens  to  protect  his 
game  from  the  other  gunner  until  he  himself  can 
reach  it,  and  kill  it !  That  is  all.  That  endless  chain 
of  saving  to-day  and  killing  to-morrow  does  not 
increase  the  wild  life  of  a  state ;  not  in  the  least.  On 
the  contrary,  that  is  the  great  American  process  of 
extermination  according  to  law! 

To  the  men  of  Yale,  I  repeat  at  the  end  what  I 
said  at  the  beginning:  Noblesse  oblige!  The  nobil- 
ity conferred  by  a  university  or  college  or  high- 
school  education  brings  with  it  solemn  obligations 
which  no  high-minded  citizen  can  ignore.  Some  of 
these  obligations  trend  toward  distressed  wild  life. 
Only  personal  effort  can  discharge  them  to  the  satis- 
faction of  a  properly  sensitized  conscience.  Do  not 
think  to  discharge  any  of  your  obligations  to  man 
or  to  nature  by  telling  some  one  else  what  to  do. 


DUTY  AND  POWER  OF  THE  CITIZEN    193 

Every  year,  about  a  thousand  men  who  have  been 
jarred,  virtuously  seek  to  salve  their  consciences 
by  writing  to  me,  and  pointing  out  what  I  should 
do  next!  Such  men  are  a  weariness  to  the  flesh. 
In  sixty  seconds  a  child  in  wild-life  protection  can 
block  out  tasks  that  would  keep  an  army  of  men 
busy  for  an  entire  year.  We  can  do  such  a  thing 
now,  in  about  twenty-five  words,  thus: 

Have  Congress  enact  a  law  making  every  na- 
tional forest  a  hard-and-fast  game  preserve,  with  all 
hunting  forever  prohibited,  save  of  predatory 
animals. 

As  every  human  heart  knoweth  its  own  bitter- 
ness, so  does  every  state  of  the  American  nation 
know  its  own  sins  of  omission  and  commission 
respecting  the  wild  life  within  its  borders.  I  know 
that  they  know,  because  the  black  list  has  been 
printed  in  a  book,  and  sent  to  each  member  of  each 
legislature.  Much  as  has  been  done  in  wild-life 
conservation  during  the  past  five  years,  the  amount 
that  remains  to  be  done  is  appalling;  and  the  shame- 
less repealer  of  good  laws,  like  the  poor  of  Holy 
Writ,  we  have  with  us  always. 

It  is  high  time  for  the  great  universities  and  col- 
leges of  our  country  seriously  to  enter  upon  the 
work — aye,  let  me  say  the  drudgery,  for  that  it  is — 
of  wild-life  conservation.  The  majority  of  our 
zoologists  are  engrossed  in  charming  zoological 
studies  while  the  everyday  birds  and  beasts  of  their 
country  are  being  swept  away.  As  a  class  and  a 


194  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

mass,  they  are  a  doubtful  asset.  The  few  excep- 
tions only  prove  the  rule. 

Turn  we,  therefore,  to  the  open-eyed,  open- 
minded  general  educators  and  general  students,  and 
lay  before  them  the  appeal  of  the  wild.  Shall  all 
our  best  wild  life  be  swept  away,  until  nothing 
remains  save  noxious  insects,  rats  and  mice?  Shall 
our  forests,  our  orchards,  gardens  and  grain-fields 
be  presented  bodily  to  the  insect  world?  Shall  the 
dignified  chase  of  deer  and  bear,  the  wild  turkey 
and  ruffed  grouse,  degenerate,  as  it  has  in  Italy,  to 
the  popping  of  robins,  sparrows  and  bobolinks? 
Already  our  sweethearts  and  wives  are  wearing 
skunk-skin  and  rabbit-skin  furs,  where  once  they 
wore  sable,  otter  and  beaver.  We  are  presenting 
annually  to  the  insect  world  about  $500,000,000 
worth  of  our  valuable  products.  Does  this  appeal 
to  the  thoughtful  mind,  or  not? 

The  facts  and  figures  that  I  have  endeavored 
to  place  before  you  are  no  figments  of  a  fevered 
imagination.  They  are  incontestably  true.  The 
conclusions  to  be  drawn  from  them  are  inexorable. 
The  saving  of  our  wild  life  is  not  an  academic  cause, 
or  an  optional  study.  It  is  a  burning  question  of 
the  market-basket  and  the  dinner-pail.  The  great 
question  to-day  is :  Will  the  American  people  now 
rise  to  the  occasion,  and  prosecute  this  cause  to  its 
logical  conclusion, — the  real  conservation  of  our 
valuable  wild  life? 


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CHAPTER  VI 

PRIVATE  GAME  PRESERVES  AS  FACTORS  IN 
CONSERVATION 

BY  FREDERIC  C.  WALCOTTi 

A  request  from  Dr.  Hornaday  to  contribute 
anything  intended  to  further  the  protection  and 
propagation  of  wild  life  in  this  country  should  be 
taken  as  a  command.  When  it  was  suggested  that 
I  add  a  chapter  to  his  Yale  lectures  to  outline  the 
work  accomplished  by  individuals  and  private  asso- 
ciations in  establishing  game  refuges  and  sanctu- 
aries in  the  United  States,  I  accepted  from  sheer 
enthusiasm  for  the  subject,  realizing  fully  my  limi- 
tations, but  trusting  that  my  brief  report  on  what 
has  been  accomplished  may  inspire  similar  efforts 
in  others. 

A  man  without  a  fad  is  hardly  fit  for  human 
society.  A  man  with  a  good  wholesome  fad  often 
becomes  quite  independent  of  the  very  society  which 
he  benefits  through  his  enthusiasm,  and  there  are 
times  when  the  call  from  the  city  to  the  game  pre- 
serve is  even  more  imperative,  and  the  problems 
more  absorbing,  than  those  of  the  farm. 

i  On  the  subject  of  this  chapter,  Mr.  Walcott  is  particularly  well 
fitted  to  write — by  study  and  research,  wide  observation,  practical 
experience,  and  above  all,  keen  interest  in,  and  sympathy  for,  wild 
life  and  its  preservation. — W.  T.  H. 

Illustrations  from  photographs  by  the  author. 


196  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

Many  of  our  American  fads  become  little  less 
than  manias,  and  all  such  are  quickly  dropped.  Too 
much  motion  is  little  better  than  lost  motion.  The 
rich  man  who  must  live  near  New  York  or  Boston 
takes  up  farming,  seriously;  and  when  he  has  fin- 
ished fertilizing  with  gold  dollars  the  sterile  acres 
of  his  collection  of  New  England  deserted  farms, 
he  has  paid  the  price  of  the  richest  farm  or  fruit 
land  in  California,  and  he  has  very  little  in  the  end. 
The  moment  the  golden  stream  ceases  to  flow  his 
land  reverts  to  steeplebush,  hardback,  gray  birch 
and  sumac.  Much  of  this  land  is  admirably  suited 
for  wild  life  and,  if  left  alone,  or  encouraged  in  its 
wild  habit,  will  generously  do  its  share  toward  pro- 
tecting and  increasing  the  wild  game  of  this  and  of 
other  countries,  for  the  ultimate  benefit  of  man- 
kind. Let  us  then  consider  the  state  and  private 
game  preserve  as  a  means  of  increasing  our  wild 
life,  our  food  supply,  and  at  the  same  time  utilizing 
waste  places  that  now  are  of  little  value  to  anyone. 

Take  the  state  of  Connecticut  as  an  example. 
Although  situated  in  the  center  of  the  most  popu- 
lous district  of  the  United  States,  with  an  area  of 
approximately  three  million  acres,  about  one-third 
of  this,  or  one  million  acres,  is  utterly  unsuited  for 
agricultural  purposes.  It  is  either  marshland, 
second-growth  hardwood,  or  rough,  wild  pasture. 
Massachusetts,  Vermont  and  New  Hampshire  have 
many  areas  of  the  same  general  character — thickly 
populated,  but  dotted  everywhere  with  deserted 
farms  and  waste  acres. 


PRIVATE  GAME  PRESERVES  197 

State  Game  Preserves. — Comparatively  few  of 
our  states  have  made  any  effort  at  the  systematic 
propagation  and  preservation  of  game,  and  fewer 
still,  it  would  seem,  have  accurate  records  of  the 
amount  of  land  within  their  borders  devoted  to 
private  preserves.  There  is  still  less  information 
regarding  the  acreage  wholly  unsuitable  for  agri- 
cultural purposes,  that  might  be  devoted  to  state 
game  preserves.  With  a  view  to  beginning  a  per- 
manent record  of  such  statistics,  the  American 
Game  Protective  Association  some  months  ago 
sent  out  to  the  authorities  of  each  state  cards  con- 
taining a  list  of  questions. 

The  responses  were  far  from  satisfactory,  both  in 
the  number  of  replies  received,  and  in  the  amount  of 
information  contained  therein.  That  was,  however, 
at  least  the  beginning  of  an  important  and  neces- 
sary work.  The  returns  received  show  that  Cali- 
fornia, Connecticut,  Delaware,  Iowa,  Kentucky, 
Missouri,  New  Jersey,  New  York  and  West  Vir- 
ginia have  state  game-farms,  and  that  on  these  the 
species  of  birds  most  successfully  reared  is  the 
ring-necked  pheasant.  Other  game  species  men- 
tioned are  wild  turkey,  valley  quail,  Hungarian 
partridge,  Mexican  quail,  bob-whites,  Canadian 
geese,  mallard  and  black  duck,  wood-duck,  golden 
and  silver  pheasant,  rabbit,  elk  and  deer. 

In  California,  since  the  establishment  of  the 
game-farm,  4,097  ring-necked  pheasants  have  been 
distributed,  1,053  wild  turkeys,  450  pheasant  eggs 


198  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

and  884  turkey  eggs.  Iowa  has  distributed  700 
ring-necked  pheasants.  Connecticut  has  distrib- 
uted 400,  but  in  the  present  season  (1914)  she  has 
raised  6,000  of  these  birds.  So  far  the  output  of 
New  Jersey's  game-farm  is  3,500  pheasants,  and  it 
is  encouraging  to  note  that  in  its  first  year  this  farm 
succeeded  in  raising  (under  the  general  super- 
vision of  Commissioner  Ernest  Napier)  4,400  ring- 
necks,  400  quail,  35  wild  turkeys,  5  Canadian  geese, 
180  mallards  and  20  deer.  New  York's  farm  so 
far  has  stocked  that  state  with  10,000  ring-necked 
pheasants  and  distributed  45,500  eggs;  while  West 
Virginia  has  produced  200  ringnecks,  100  Hun- 
garian quail  and  3,000  ringneck  eggs. 

All  of  the  states  agree  that  the  propagation 
methods  adopted  are  increasing  the  visible  supply 
of  game,  and  several  suggest  an  increase  in  the  num- 
ber of  private  preserves  to  reinforce  the  game- 
breeding.  Many  officials  complain  that  the  space 
allowed  for  propagating  purposes  is  too  limited. 

E.  C.  Hinshaw,  state  fish  and  game  warden  of 
Iowa,  in  his  reply  says :  "I  am  at  this  time  establish- 
ing game  reserves  in  every  county  throughout  the 
state,  wherein  no  hunting  will  be  allowed  for  five 
years.  All  birds  liberated  will  be  placed  in  them, 
and  given  every  possible  protection  from  hunters 
and  vermin,  and  will  also  be  provided  with  food 
and  shelter  if  necessary,  during  extremely  hard 
weather." 

The  State  Board  of  Fisheries  and  Game  at  Hart- 


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I 


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.3 


PRIVATE  GAME  PRESERVES  199 

ford,  Connecticut,  declares  that  dogs  should  not  be 
allowed  to  roam  at  will  during  the  breeding  season, 
and  that  cats,  when  found  at  large,  should  be 
treated  as  vermin.  It  also  contends  that  the  de- 
struction of  certain  hawks  should  be  encouraged; 
with  which  all  bird-protectors  will  agree. 

Pitfalls  of  which  the  beginner  in  game-breeding 
is  warned  are:  overcrowding  and  its  resultant  dis- 
ease, black-head,  quail  disease,  roup,  gapes,  egg- 
eating  by  adult  birds,  vermin  (if  eggs  are  hatched 
by  hens) ,  inadequate  regulation  of  temperature  and 
moisture  in  incubators,  destruction  of  young  birds 
by  rats,  unsanitary  conditions  generally,  failure  to 
provide  fresh  ground  in  breeding,  and  predatory 
foxes. 

Information  as  to  the  space  available  for  game 
preserves,  or  even  the  area  now  actually  used  as 
such,  is  difficult  to  obtain.  California  tells  us  it  has 
nearly  2,000  square  miles,  or  1,280,000  acres,  of 
fresh- water  ponds  and  lakes,  and  nearly  1,000  miles 
of  coast-line.  In  addition  to  the  above,  it  has 
nearly  2,000  square  miles  of  preserves.  Connecti- 
cut has  50,000  acres,  including  private  and  public 
lands.  Add  a  generous  approximate  acreage  from 
several  of  the  other  states  interested  in  propagation, 
and  the  total,  when  compared  with  the  acreage  of 
the  United  States,  is  relatively  insignificant,  com- 
pared to  even  a  partial  list  of  Scottish  moorlands 
advertised  in  the  London  Times  of  July  3,  1914, 
for  lease  during  this  shooting  season — a  total  of  29 


200  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

moors  aggregating  235,000  acres,  with  a  season's 
yield  of  13,500  brace  of  grouse  and  287  stags, 
together  with  several  miles  of  trout  and  salmon 
streams. 

If  the  states  that  already  show  a  healthy  interest 
in  the  better  protection  of  their  game  should  now 
throw  into  service  the  unused  acreage  they  well 
could  spare,  we  would  have  breeding-grounds  in 
comparison  with  which  even  these  of  Europe  would 
seem  small.  Here  is  a  list  of  available  lands  which 
experts  estimate  certain  states  could  afford  to  use 
for  game  propagation  on  a  commercial  basis : 

Connecticut     .      .      .      .  1,000,000  acres. 

New  Jersey    ...      .     V  2,007,000  acres. 

West  Virginia      .      .      .  10,000,000  acres. 

Utah 28,320  square  miles. 

South   Dakota      .      .      .  15,000,000  acres. 

New  Mexico  .      .      .     ".  2,000,000  acres. 

(Already  preserved  for  private  use.) 

Montana 25,000,000  acres. 

Minnesota        ....  7,000,000  acres. 

Maine 5,000,000  acres. 

Georgia 500,000  acres. 

New  York  contains  800,000  acres  already  in 
private  preserves  in  the  Adirondacks  alone,  and  a 
much  larger  area  is  owned  and  controlled  by  the 
state. 

Nearly  every  state  has  a  forest,  fish  and  game 
commission,  some  of  the  states  have  park  commis- 
sions, and  all  of  the  eastern  states  have  boards  of 
education.  Clearly,  it  seems  to  be  the  duty  of  these 


PRIVATE  GAME  PRESERVES  201 

boards  and  commissions  to  cooperate  in  utilizing 
these  wild  lands  for  the  benefit  of  the  people  at 
large.  This  is  to  be  accomplished  by  reforestation, 
to  protect  the  water  supply ;  by  stocking  the  woods 
and  water  with  intelligently  selected  birds,  mam- 
mals and  fish;  and  by  building  state  roads  to  and 
through  reserved  tracts,  that  they  may  become 
accessible  as  free  camp-sites  and  pleasure  resorts  to 
conserve  the  health  of  the  people  and  supply 
another  source  of  healthful  pleasure  and  recreation 
for  those  with  moderate  incomes. 

We  must  not  forget  what  has  been  done  and  is 
being  done  in  this  direction.  It  is  important  that 
all  the  departments  of  conservation  should  work  in 
the  closest  harmony  with  each  other,  to  prevent 
duplication  of  investment  and  labor.  Even  though 
the  conservation  laws  of  many  states  are  in  urgent 
need  of  reform,  still  we  have  made,  and  are  making, 
marked  progress. 

If  space  permitted,  it  would  be  interesting  and 
helpful  to  discuss  the  methods  employed  on  the  vari- 
ous game-farms,  and  analyze  the  results  of  game- 
distribution  in  each  state ;  but  the  chief  purpose  of 
this  article  is  to  appeal  to  the  imagination  of  the 
man  who,  as  owner  of  a  large  or  small  tract  of 
semi-wild  land,  should  be  contributing  substan- 
tially toward  the  increase  of  the  supply  of  wild  life 
that  in  general  is  so  rapidly  vanishing.  Although 
the  work  done  by  some  of  the  states  is  already 


202  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

important,  it  should  be  supplemented  by  the  owners 
of  private  preserves. 

There  is  little  danger  that  we  in  the  United 
States  will  fall  into  the  error  that  England  has 
made  in  allowing  three-fourths  of  her  land  to  be 
owned  by  one-fourth  of  her  population.  Neither 
is  it  likely  that  we  shall  become  a  nation  of  sports- 
men to  the  same  extent  that  the  English  have. 
But  if  by  state  and  individual  effort  we  can,  in  the 
next  generation  or  two,  increase  our  song-birds, 
our  game-birds  and  water-fowl,  as  has  been  done 
in  England,  the  economic  results  to  the  consumers 
of  farm  products,  in  the  lower  prices  of  game  food 
and  the  love  of  nature  that  must  accompany  an 
interest  in  and  knowledge  of  these  things,  will  prove 
among  our  important  national  assets. 

The  Beginning  of  Private  Game  Preserves  in 
America. — From  the  earliest  colonial  times  there 
have  been  game  preserves  in  this  country,  both  of 
the  fenced  and  unfenced  types;  and  there  are 
records  of  estates  attempting  to  stock  with  English 
pheasants,  European  gray  and  red-legged  par- 
tridges, extending  back  more  than  a  hundred  years. 
Perhaps  the  most  interesting  among  the  early 
game  preserves  was  Bohemia  Manor  in  Cecil 
County,  Maryland,  where  Augustine  Hermann 
established,  in  1661,  a  walled  deer-park  of  consider- 
able size.  The  game  preserves  of  the  early  period 
were  found  chiefly  in  Virginia  and  Maryland,  and 
to  a  lesser  extent  in  the  Atlantic  States  to  the  south 


PRIVATE  GAME  PRESERVES  203 

and  north,  where  the  English  royalists  and  other 
wealthy  foreigners  had  founded  estates.  There 
were  no  early  game  preserves  in  New  England, 
doubtless  owing  to  the  temper  of  the  colonists. 

The  Atlantic  coast  from  New  Jersey  southward 
was  originally  the  best  preserved  section  of  Amer- 
ica. As  a  matter  of  custom  the  farmers  and 
planters  of  the  southern  states  have  reserved  the 
shooting  on  their  lands  for  themselves  and  their 
friends,  and  that  system  still  is  in  vogue,  except 
that  in  many  instances  the  owners  of  the  lands  have 
leased  the  shooting  rights  to  wealthy  sportsmen. 
In  the  Carolinas,  for  example,  hundreds  of  thou- 
sands of  acres  of  quail  lands  are  leased  to  individ- 
uals and  clubs,  a  large  part  of  whose  membership 
is  drawn  from  the  northern  and  western  states. 
Clubs  and  individuals  have  also  acquired  the  wild- 
fowl shooting-rights  along  the  bays,  sounds  and 
rivers  of  the  Atlantic  coast,  and  to  an  equal  extent 
the  best  localities  on  the  Pacific  coast,  chiefly  in  the 
great  state  of  California.  Along  the  northern  bor- 
der of  the  United  States,  particularly  on  the  Great 
Lakes,  many  of  the  best  wild- fowl  marshes  are  simi- 
larly controlled,  and  there  has  also  been  extensive 
development  of  preserves  for  the  shooting  of  wild 
fowl  throughout  the  Mississippi  River  states  and 
westward  to  the  Pacific  coast. 

Important  Private  Game  Preserves  in  the 
United  States. — In  1858  Judge  John  Dean  Caton, 
who  subsequently  wrote  an  authoritative  work  on 


204  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

"The  Antelope  and  Deer  of  America,"  established 
a  deer  park  near  Ottawa,  Illinois.  Here  Judge 
Caton  made  a  highly  valuable  study  of  American 
big  game  in  captivity. 

In  1886  the  late  Austin  Corbin  began  fencing 
in  his  game  park  near  Newport,  New  Hampshire, 
including  within  it  the  farm  which  had  been  his  boy- 
hood home.  This  park  is  the  largest  private  fenced 
preserve  in  America,  containing  within  its  area 
about  27,000  acres  of  wooded  upland  country 
diversified  by  occasional  cleared  areas  which  once 
were  hill  farms.  It  is  estimated  that  there  have 
been  as  many  as  4,000  big  game  animals  in  this  park 
at  one  time,  including  buffalo,  wapiti,  deer  and  wild 
boars.  The  native  white-tailed  deer  are  naturally 
the  most  numerous. 

Blue  Mountain  Forest  Park,  as  it  is  called,  was 
established  as  a  hunting-preserve.  It  has  had  the 
good  fortune  to  have  associated  with  it,  for  several 
years,  the  New  Hampshire  naturalist,  Ernest 
Harold  Baynes,  with  whose  interesting  studies  the 
public  is  familiar  through  his  published  articles. 

The  largest  fenced  preserve  in  New  York  State 
is  the  park  owned  by  Edward  H.  Litchfield  of 
Brooklyn,  near  Tupper  Lake,  in  the  Adirondacks, 
which  comprises  in  its  area  about  10,000  acres.  Mr. 
Litchfield  has  stocked  this  preserve  with  many 
species  of  American  big  game  animals,  and  also  wild 
boar. 

Another  interesting  preserve  of  this  type  is  that 


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PRIVATE  GAME  PRESERVES  205 

of  Mr.  C.  F.  Dieterich,  who  for  more  than  twenty 
years  has  had  about  3,000  acres  under  fence  at  Mill- 
brook,  Dutchess  County,  New  York.  Mr.  Dieter- 
ich successfully  introduced  German  hares  and  has 
also  made  interesting  experiments  with  roe  deer, 
which  now  seem  thoroughly  acclimatized. 

Mr.  Chester  W.  Chapin's  preserve  is  in  Sullivan 
County,  New  York.  The  late  Dr.  W.  Seward 
Webb  had  a  large  tract  of  forest  land  fenced  at  his 
Nehasane  Park  in  the  Adirondacks.  William 
Rockefeller  also  experimented  with  exotic  deer  at 
his  Bay  Pond  preserve  in  the  Adirondacks,  and 
George  J.  Gould  at  one  time  had  a  herd  of  elk  at 
his  place  near  Arkville  in  the  Catskills.  As  far 
back  as  1902,  as  a  result  of  a  computation  made  by 
the  State  Forest,  Fish  and  Game  Commission  of 
New  York,  there  was  a  total  of  791,208  acres  of 
land  included  in  game  preserves  in  the  Adiron- 
dacks. Most  of  this  land,  however,  was  not  fenced, 
but  simply  posted  by  the  owners  against  public 
shooting,  as  they  desired  to  have  the  exclusive  privi- 
lege of  taking  the  deer,  ruffed  grouse  and  trout 
native  to  the  region. 

In  recent  years  a  marked  development  has 
occurred  in  a  type  of  preserve  where  game  is  not 
only  protected  but  propagated.  It  is  interesting 
to  note  that  while  many  of  these  preserves  are 
founded  for  the  purpose  of  sport,  there  is  an  appre- 
ciable number  where  scientific  or  aesthetic  objects 
are  the  governing  factor.  One  of  the  first  and 


206  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

most  noteworthy  of  the  preserves  belonging  to  an 
incorporated  association  was  that  of  the  Blooming 
Grove  Park  Association  in  Pike  County,  Pennsyl- 
vania, established  in  1871,  where,  in  addition  to  the 
native  grouse  and  other  game-birds,  hundreds  of 
pheasants  are  shot  each  year  by  club  members.  The 
Clove  Valley  Rod  and  Gun  Club  of  Dutchess 
County,  New  York,  is  another  successful  example 
of  this  type.  It  was  the  first  organization  to  profit 
by  the  new  "Bayne  law,"  providing  for  the  sale  of 
mallard  ducks  reared  in  captivity,  and  marketed 
according  to  law.  In  1912  this  club  reared  and 
marketed  about  4,000  mallards,  at  a  net  profit  of 
approximately  $2,500. 

One  of  the  earliest  attempts  at  systematic  propa- 
gation of  game-birds  in  this  country  was  made  by 
Mr.  Rutherford  Stuyvesant  in  1887,  at  his  place 
called  "Tranquillity,"  in  Allamuchy,  Warren 
County,  New  Jersey.  Mr.  Stuyvesant's  preserve 
consisted  of  8,000  acres,  and  his  success  was  very 
largely  due  to  the  expert  assistants  he  secured  from 
Scotland.  A  brief  review  of  the  work  accomplished 
by  Mr.  Stuyvesant  will  be  interesting,  as  he  was  in 
a  sense  a  pioneer  in  this  country  in  systematic 
game-bird  rearing. 

Donald  McVicar,  who  had  been  head  game- 
keeper for  the  Duke  of  Leinster,  Kildare,  Ireland, 
in  1887  brought  over  from  England  for  Mr.  Stuy- 
vesant 500  ring-necked  pheasant  eggs.  From  these 
he  reared  only  about  70  birds.  Eggs  are  quite  apt 


PRIVATE  GAME  PRESERVES  207 

to  be  rendered  infertile  by  shipping  long  distances. 
The  second  season  65  live  birds  were  brought  over 
from  England  for  breeding  stock.  In  a  few  seasons 
the  annual  hatch  was  brought  up  to  about  4,000 
pheasants.  One  year  500  live  quail  were  brought 
from  the  South,  and  set  out  in  the  fall  in  small  wire 
coops.  They  were  fed  regularly  and  wintered  well, 
and  in  the  spring  they  were  liberated.  A  great 
many  birds  were  reared  by  this  stock,  but  practi- 
cally all  of  them  left  "Tranquillity"  before  the  next 
winter. 

In  1891  part  of  the  preserve  was  enclosed  for 
deer,  white-tailed,  mule  and  wapiti,  which  were 
liberated  and  did  well  for  several  years. 

An  experiment  was  made  of  crossing  American 
bison  bulls  with  Galloway  cows ;  but  nineteen  cows 
died  calving,  and  the  experiment  was  given  up. 

In  the  early  nineties  a  beaver  colony  was  started, 
which  proved  successful.  The  offspring  of  this 
colony  are  now  breeding  in  open  territory  in  New 
York  State,  without  adequate  protection. 

The  ruffed  grouse,  native  to  the  Tranquillity 
district,  increased  rapidly  on  account  of  the  per- 
sistent trapping  of  vermin,  and  the  ring-necked 
pheasants  apparently  did  not  molest  them  or  dimin- 
ish their  numbers.  The  ring-necked  pheasants  keep 
to  the  open  woods  and  fields,  and  to  some  extent 
apparently  drive  the  grouse  deeper  into  the  woods, 
but  beyond  this  do  not  interfere  with  them. 

One  of  the  most  important  contributions  of  this 


208  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

preserve  has  proved  to  be  the  men  that  Me  Vicar 
brought  over  with  him,  Adam  Scott,  Duncan 
Dunn,  Donald  Monroe,  Neal  Clark,  and  his  son, 
A.  G.  McVicar,  all  from  Inveraray,  Argyleshire, 
Scotland.  These  men  have  greatly  advanced  the 
development  of  private  preserves  in  eastern  United 
States. 

In  Canada,  the  Province  of  Quebec  has  adopted 
a  system  of  leasing  crown  lands  that  has  resulted 
in  the  creation  of  a  number  of  large  shooting  and 
fishing  preserves.  The  provincial  law  limits  to  200 
square  miles  the  extent  of  territory  that  may  be 
held  by  any  one  club,  and  three  dollars  per  square 
mile  per  annum  is  the  minimum  price  charged  for 
shooting  privileges.  The  Megantic  Club,  which 
owns  or  controls  125,000  acres  of  land  partly  in 
Quebec  and  partly  in  Maine,  is  one  of  the  oldest 
and  most  representative  clubs  of  this  type. 

Charles  C.  Worthington  of  New  Jersey  has  for 
many  years  maintained  one  of  the  largest  and  most 
successful  bird  refuges  in  the  country  and  has 
recently  offered  his  80,000-acre  tract  to  the  state  of 
New  Jersey  to  be  held  by  the  state  as  a  permanent 
game  refuge.  He  has  been  so  successful  in  breeding 
white-tailed  deer  that  at  one  time  he  reported  a 
surplus  of  about  1,000  head. 

Another  notable  instance  of  bird  protection  and 
propagation  is  Mr.  Henry  Ford's  2,100-acre  farm 
and  bird  sanctuary  near  Detroit,  Michigan.  Mr. 
Ford  has  encouraged  the  "farmers'  best  friends"  to 


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PRIVATE  GAME  PRESERVES  209 

help  him  by  setting  out  shrubs  and  erecting  nesting 
boxes  in  every  spot  congenial  to  the  birds.  He  is 
one  of  the  most  efficient  enthusiasts  in  conserving 
bird  life  in  order  to  lessen  the  damage  to  crops  by 
insects,  which  the  United  States  Department  of 
Agriculture  estimates  amounts  to  $800,000,000 
annually.  He  entered  very  actively  into  the  cam- 
paign for  the  passage  of  the  federal  migratory  bird 
law,  and  he  is  one  of  the  founders  of  Dr.  Horna- 
day's  Permanent  Wild  Life  Protection  Fund. 

The  experiment  station  of  the  American  Game 
Protective  and  Propagation  Association  is  at  South 
Carver,  Cape  Cod,  Massachusetts.  The  preserve 
contains  6,000  acres  of  land,  including  sixteen  fresh- 
water ponds,  where  deer,  ring-necked  pheasants, 
mallard,  wood-duck,  quail  and  ruffed  grouse  are 
being  reared  for  distribution  among  the  members  of 
the  Association  to  encourage  the  extension  of 
private  preserves. 

The  game  breeders'  association,  formerly  of 
Wading  River,  Long  Island,  and  now  at  Sparrow- 
bush,  New  York,  has  made  extensive  experiments 
with  pheasants,  ducks  and  quail.  Last  season  they 
gathered  4,000  eggs  from  170  mallard  ducks  and 
hatched  2,500  ducklings. 

The  Woodmont  Rod  and  Gun  Club,  in  the 
mountains  of  the  western  part  of  Maryland  near 
Harper's  Ferry,  has  accomplished  excellent  results 
in  breeding  the  wild  turkey  and  quail. 

Dr.  J.  W.  Whealton,  of  Chincoteague  Island, 


210  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

Virginia,  has  probably  been  more  successful  in 
raising  Canada  geese  than  anyone  else  in  the  United 
States.  He  has  had  much  experience  in  raising 
water-fowl,  is  a  careful  observer  and  has  been  most 
helpful  in  advising  beginners. 

In  1913  Mrs.  Russell  Sage  purchased,  through 
Messrs.  Ward  &  Mcllhenny,  the  whole  of  Marsh 
Island,  Louisiana,  about  100  miles  west  of  the 
mouth  of  the  Mississippi.  This  is  one  of  the  most 
important  winter  feeding-grounds  for  water-fowl 
in  the  United  States,  and  long  has  been  a  favorite 
resort  for  market-hunters.  Mrs.  Sage  has  offered 
this  great  bird  sanctuary  to  the  United  States 
Government  as  a  gift,  to  be  kept  always  as  a  bird 
refuge,  and  in  due  time  it  undoubtedly  will  be 
accepted.  At  present  it  is  being  guarded  at  the 
expense  of  Mrs.  Sage. 

An  announcement  has  just  been  made  of  a  pur- 
chase of  85,000  acres  of  marshland  near  the  mouth 
of  the  Mississippi  in  Louisiana  at  a  cost  of  approxi- 
mately $225,000,  by  the  Rockefeller  Foundation. 
Mr.  E.  A.  Mcllhenny  of  Avery  Island,  Louisiana, 
brought  this  tract  of  land  to  the  attention  of  the 
Rockefeller  Foundation.  The  tract  is  only  a  few 
miles  from  Marsh  Island,  above  referred  to,  and  it 
is  one  of  the  most  celebrated  winter  homes  and 
spring  breeding-places  for  land  birds  and  water- 
fowl. 

Colonel  Anthony  R.  Kuser  has  maintained  for 
several  years  at  his  home  in  Bernardsville,  New 


PRIVATE  GAME  PRESERVES  211 

Jersey,  a  large  aviary  for  pheasants  and  has  suc- 
cessfully reared  in  captivity  a  great  many  different 
species.  Colonel  Kuser  has  always  been  an  enthu- 
siast in  game  propagation,  and  in  addition  to  the 
work  he  has  done  for  the  state  and  the  New  York 
Zoological  Society,  he  is  now  developing  a  large 
private  game  preserve  near  High  Point,  New 
Jersey. 

The  Audubon  Societies  of  the  United  States  are 
ably  administered  by  a  group  of  enthusiastic  and 
successful  men  and  women.  They  have  caught  the 
spirit  of  that  pioneer  worker,  Mr.  William  Dutcher, 
who  founded  the  National  Association,  and  they 
should  receive  the  loyal  support  of  the  entire  coun- 
try in  their  crusade  against  bird  enemies.  One  of 
the  most  destructive  of  these  enemies  is  the  immi- 
grant from  Southern  Europe,  whose  Sunday  bag 
is  too  often  filled  with  our  most  useful  and  sweetest 
songsters. 

The  most  effective  remedy  is  the  instruction  in 
natural  history  by  our  public  schools,  which  is 
creating  in  the  minds  of  our  future  citizens  a 
realization  of  the  economic  and  aesthetic  value  of  the 
birds. 

The  Ethics  of  the  Aviary. — The  love  of  all  wild 
animals  is  growing  apace  in  this  country,  and  with 
it  is  growing  a  dislike  for  everything  that  is  cruel 
in  the  confinement  or  treatment  of  animals.  The 
indiscriminate  keeping  of  caged  wild  birds  and 
animals  should  be  discouraged  as  much  as  the  indis- 
criminate collecting  of  eggs  and  song-birds. 


212  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

The  pinioned  caged  birds  and  water- fowl  are 
beautiful  things  to  look  at,  and  the  aviary  and 
flying  cage  are  interesting,  but  the  first  cost  of  the 
plant  is  large,  and  often  the  owner,  becoming  tired 
of  this  form  of  amusement,  or  disgusted  with  the 
sight  of  wild  birds  closely  confined  in  unnatural  sur- 
roundings, decides  to  give  his  pets  the  freedom  they 
long  for,  or  confine  his  efforts  to  only  such  varieties 
as  may  be  liberated,  or  raised  in  a  state  of  semi- 
domestication. 

The  zoological  societies  should  carry  on  experi- 
ments in  propagation,  where  the  results  can  be 
carefully  tabulated  and  made  available  for  the 
public. 

Wherever  anyone  feels  disposed  to  maintain  a 
private  aviary  and  permit  the  public  to  view  the  col- 
lection upon  stated  occasions,  it  becomes  an  impor- 
tant adjunct  to  the  education  of  the  public.  This 
method  has  been  initiated  with  conspicuous  gener- 
osity and  success  by  Mrs.  Frederic  Ferris  Thomp- 
son with  her  extensive  aviary  at  her  country  home, 
"Sonneberg,"  in  the  suburbs  of  Canandaigua,  New 
York. 

The  tendency  even  in  the  zoological  parks  is,  or 
should  be,  to  get  away  as  far  as  possible  from  arti- 
ficial conditions  of  life,  by  building  large  flying 
cages,  large  runways  for  the  animals,  and  letting  as 
many  species  as  possible  fly  or  roam  at  large  within 
the  main  enclosures. 

The  zoological  societies  of  this  country  should 


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PRIVATE  GAME  PRESERVES  213 

cooperate  to  the  fullest  extent  with  the  state  and 
private  preserves  to  encourage  their  development, 
and  furnish,  practically  at  cost  for  services  and 
expenses,  a  consulting  expert  to  enable  the  begin- 
ner to  start  intelligently,  avoid  serious  mistakes, 
correct  unavoidable  errors,  prescribe  against  sick- 
ness and  help  enforce  sanitary  conditions  by  empha- 
sizing at  all  times  the  importance  of  the  great  cardi- 
nal principle,  hygiene.  The  New  York  Zoological 
Society  is  already  doing  much  along  this  line. 

The  Response  of  Wild  Fowl  to  Man's  Protec- 
tion.— It  is  far  more  interesting  to  tame  a  wild 
bird  by  coaxing  it  to  feed  on  your  window-sill  every 
morning  than  it  is  to  look  after  a  thrush  that  is 
eating  his  heart  out  in  a  small  cage  as  he  watches 
through  the  bars  of  his  prison  the  chickadees  on  the 
window-sill. 

It  is  this  growing — not  humanizing,  but  animaliz- 
ing — instinct  that  is  turning  us  with  something  akin 
to  disgust  away  from  the  ill-smelling,  poorly  kept 
cage  collections  of  the  often  misguided  individual 
enthusiast  to  the  free  out-of-door  range,  where  the 
birds  that  have  been  migrating  over  those  acres  for 
countless  generations  are  glad  to  drop  down  out  of 
the  sky  and  feed,  eager  to  accept  protection  from 
their  most  deadly  enemy,  man. 

Practical  Suggestions. — It  is  astonishing  what 
can  be  accomplished  in  two  or  three  seasons  from 
the  smallest  beginning,  provided  a  few  fundamen- 
tals are  observed.  A  successful  game  preserve  and 


214  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

bird  refuge  can  be  made  on  almost  any  land 
unsuited  to  agricultural  purposes,  that  is  partially 
covered  with  trees,  either  virgin  forest  or  second- 
growth  hardwood,  or  wild  pasture  overgrown  with 
bushes  and  containing  some  fresh  water,  preferably 
a  stream  with  pools  or  small  ponds,  and  situated  in 
the  vicinity  of  a  river  running  north  and  south,  the 
favorite  route  of  migratory  birds.  These  condi- 
tions can  be  found  almost  anywhere  in  New  Eng- 
land, in  any  of  the  states  on  the  Atlantic  coast  and 
in  many  states  bordering  large  rivers,  such  as  the 
Hudson,  Savannah,  Potomac,  Mississippi,  Mis- 
souri, Rio  Grande  or  Sacramento.  They  are  also 
to  be  found  in  many  portions  of  our  very  extensive 
lake  frontage.  A  wooded  island  is  of  course  ideal, 
because  on  such  areas  the  vermin  pest  can  be  so 
easily  controlled.  The  following  table  illustrates 
the  marked  effect  of  systematic  killing  of  vermin 
at  a  private  preserve  in  England : 

VERMIN 

(Killed  between  the  seasons  of  1903  and  1904.) 

Rats      .      .      .      .      .      .       .      .      '.      .  5,959 

Stoats          .      .      .      ...      .      .      .  270 

Weasels       .      .      .      ...      .      *      .  271 

Hedgehogs       .      .      »'    .      .      .      .     -.  541 

Rooks    .       .      .      .      .      ,      .      .      .      .  304 

Jays      ........      .       .     \  364 

Magpies      .      .      .      ,..«..  2 

Jackdaws .  39 

Cats 154 

7,904 


PRIVATE  GAME  PRESERVES  215 

GAME 

1903  1904 

Pheasants      .....  943            1,509 

Partridges 790            4,774 

Woodcock      .      .      ...  19                 27 

Hare        .      .      .      .      .      .  462            2,236 

Snipe       .......  3                    1 

Wood-ducks   (Mallard)        .  12 

Pigeons    ......  5                  38 

Deer         ......  46 

Fawns        .      .      .      .      .  30 

Wild  sheep   ....      *  2 

Peacocks        ....      »  1 

Rabbits    .      .      ...      .  15,346          18,519 

Increase  chiefly  due  to  trapping  of  vermin. 

Bounty  of  1  penny  per  rat  to  everyone  except  keepers. 

This  record  was  made  on  a  leased  preserve  after 
the  place  had  been  neglected  for  several  seasons. 

The  most  marked  increases  occur  in  the  partridge 
and  hare,  which  are  not  raised  by  hand,  showing 
that  the  increase  is  chiefly  due  to  the  reduction  of 
vermin. 

There  is  a  fascination  about  letting  semi-wild 
land  slowly  and  methodically  revert  to  its  original 
state,  and  in  encouraging  one's  land  to  respond  to 
the  call  of  the  wild.  It  costs  only  a  small  portion 
of  the  amount  required  to  run  a  farm,  it  has  fewer 
worries,  and  the  making  of  a  preserve  for  birds, 
water- fowl  or  mammals,  whether  it  is  to  be  a  refuge 
for  song-birds,  as  all  preserves  become  willy-nilly, 
or  to  supply  the  market  with  game  at  the  prevailing 


216  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

fancy  prices  as  a  reasonably  lucrative  enterprise,  is 
interesting  and  satisfying  beyond  all  description. 

The  readiness  of  nearly  all  wild  animals  to  accept 
man's  proposals  to  protect  and  partially  feed  them 
is  amazing.  It  appeals  wonderfully  to  one's  sense 
of  fair  play  to  find  a  flock  of  wild  geese  meeting 
you  more  than  half-way  by  staying  with  you  and 
rearing  their  brood  as  long  as  you  give  them  a  little 
corn  at  the  same  time  each  day ;  and  the  knowledge 
that  your  own  wild  ducks  decline  to  go  south,  when 
literally  thousands  of  their  wilder  friends  come  and 
go  each  spring  and  fall,  warms  the  cockles  of  your 
heart. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  intelligence  of  wild 
water-fowl  and  the  quickness  with  which  they  learn 
to  take  advantage  of  protection  that  is  offered,  I 
might  cite  an  incident  that  was  told  me  by  that 
keen  sportsman  and  ardent  lover  of  wild  life,  Lord 
William  Percy. 

It  seems  that  in  the  north  of  England,  not  far 
from  Alnwick  Castle,  Lord  William's  home,  lives 
a  gentleman  named  Grant,  who  while  offering 
every  protection  to  all  wild  fowl  on  his  place  never 
has  allowed  any  shooting.  A  flock  of  wild  gray 
mallards  came  annually  to  Mr.  Grant's  place,  and 
as  they  were  never  molested  they  became  as  tame  as 
barnyard  fowl,  and  would  come  to  the  kitchen  door 
to  be  fed.  In  the  open,  however,  these  birds  were 
even  more  shy  than  ordinary  wild  fowl,  and  Lord 
William  stated  that  the  professional  gunners  came 


PRIVATE  GAME  PRESERVES  217 

to  know  this  flock,  which  gradually  increased  to 
four  or  five  hundred,  on  account  of  their  wariness 
and  would  make  no  attempt  either  to  stalk  or  decoy 
them  in  their  flight  up  and  down  the  coast. 

Description  of  the  Author's  Game  Preserve  at 
Norfolk,  Connecticut. — A  brief  description  of  a 
preserve  of  4,000  acres  started  three  years  ago  by 
Mr.  S.  W.  Childs  and  the  writer  in  the  north- 
western part  of  Connecticut  may  be  of  interest,  to 
show  how  quickly  wild  life  responds  to  protection, 
and  to  indicate  some  of  the  stumbling-blocks  and 
cardinal  principles  in  the  making  of  a  preserve. 

As  I  sit  here  writing  on  the  porch  of  a  house 
overlooking  a  typical  Connecticut  pond  about 
three-quarters  of  a  mile  long  and  half  a  mile  wide, 
a  poodle  pointer  imported  from  Germany  and  an 
English  setter  are  standing  by  my  side,  quivering 
with  excitement  as  they  watch  eight  ring-necked 
pheasants  feeding  on  a  small  piece  of  lawn  a  few 
feet  away. 

Canada  geese  are  making  a  great  uproar  by  the 
shore  of  the  pond  below  as  they  chase  back  and 
forth,  flapping  their  wings,  apparently  trying  to 
encourage  their  goslings,  now  at  the  end  of  August 
nearly  full  grown,  to  rise  and  fly. 

Wild  black  mallards  and  wood-ducks  that  bred 
this  year  on  the  place,  and  several  hundred  hand- 
reared  gray  mallards,  all  able  to  fly,  are  to  be  seen 
in  the  air  and  on  the  water,  and  a  herd  of  fifteen 
native  Connecticut  white-tailed  deer,  with  four 


218  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

fawns  born  this  spring,  instead  of  the  cows  that 
have  called  that  ground  their  home  for  the  last  fifty 
years,  are  browsing  in  sight  of  the  house,  among 
some  young  white  birches  that  are  growing  in  a 
typical  wild  pasture  lot  of  about  seventy-five  acres. 

There  are  three  other  ponds  on  this  place,  and 
last  spring  several  broods  of  black  ducks  were 
reared  on  each.  Two  of  the  ponds  are  natural 
water-holes,  and  the  other  two  are  artificial.  The 
former  were  reclaimed  by  putting  in  small  stone 
dams  where  the  weather  of  years  had  destroyed  the 
handicraft  of  pioneer  lumbermen.  The  latter  are 
streams  dammed  at  points  where  narrow  breaks  in 
the  ground  permitted  of  short,  inexpensive  timber 
and  earth  structures. 

Between  two  and  three  thousand  black  ducks 
drop  into  the  home  pond  each  fall  and  remain  until 
late  December  before  going  farther  south ;  and  each 
fall  and  spring,  from  forty  to  fifty  wild  Canada 
geese  stay  with  our  geese  several  days,  for  food.  A 
snow  goose  caught  in  a  fish  net  on  Long  Island 
Sound  last  fall,  and  sent  to  us  after  being  wing- 
clipped,  has  become  perfectly  tame,  and  is  now 
flying  about  as  naturally  as  she  did  in  the  wild 
state.  A  wing-tipped  cackling  goose,  wounded  at 
Horn  Point,  Virginia,  near  Currituck  Sound  (the 
only  record  of  this  bird  on  the  Atlantic  coast) ,  was 
brought  to  the  preserve  in  January,  1913,  and 
liberated.  The  broken  wing  soon  healed,  allowing 
her  to  fly  perfectly,  and  this  bird  has  twice  declined 


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PRIVATE  GAME  PRESERVES  219 

to  migrate  with  the  larger  wild  flock.  She  has 
mated  with  a  Hutchins  gander,  and  has  succeeded 
with  her  charms  in  enticing  a  Canadian  gander 
from  his  mate,  to  whom  he  had  been  faithful  for 
eight  years ! 

We  have  liberated  between  800  and  1,000  ring- 
necked  pheasants  of  our  own  raising  each  season, 
and  now  expect  to  raise  from  1,500  to  2,000  gray 
mallards  every  season,  for  the  market.  Gray 
mallards  bring  in  the  market  from  $3  to  $3.50  per 
pair  and  it  costs  from  75  cents  to  $1  to  bring  a 
mallard  to  maturity.  The  eggs  sell  at  from  $15 
to  $20  per  hundred. 

Pheasants  are  much  more  difficult  to  raise  than 
ducks,  but  enough  could  be  sold  each  year  to 
decrease  materially  the  cost  of  running  the  pre- 
serve, provided  the  law  of  the  state  in  which  the 
birds  are  raised  permits  the  sale  of  hand-reared 
game.  The  New  York  state  law  is  excellent  in  this 
respect,  and  other  states  should  allow  the  sale  of 
hand-reared  game,  in  order  to  encourage  their 
increase  by  artificial  methods  and  create  a  new 
industry. 

The  overflow  from  private  preserves  nearly 
always  stocks  the  neighboring  woods  and  fields, 
affording  excellent  sport.  The  pheasant  is  largely 
an  insectivorous  bird,  preferring  the  open  field  and 
the  edge  of  the  wooded  areas  to  the  dense  woods, 
and  probably  interferes  very  little  with  our  native 
ruffed  grouse.  He  wanders  far  afield,  however, 


220  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

and  unless  the  land  round  about  is  suited  to  him,  he 
will  leave  for  the  more  congenial  environment  of  the 
river  bottom  and  the  low-lying  farms. 

One  of  the  great  desiderata  for  American  game- 
rearing  is  a  manual  of  instruction  adapted  to  cli- 
matic conditions  as  found  between  Virginia  to  the 
south  and  New  Hampshire  to  the  north.  Such  a 
manual,  to  be  really  useful,  must  be  written  by  a 
man  who  has  had  a  long  and  successful  experience ; 
and  when  such  a  manual  is  written,  it  will  give  a 
tremendous  impetus  to  game  propagation.  It  must 
cover  the  following  subjects:  1.  Selection  of  a 
preserve  for  birds  and  mammals.  2.  Exterminat- 
ing vermin,  such  as  the  bay  lynx  or  bobcat,  skunk, 
fox,  weasel,  domestic  cat,  rat,  crow,  red  squirrel, 
great  horned  owl,  sharp-shinned  and  Cooper's 
hawk.  3.  Natural  foods  for  pheasants,  quail, 
grouse  and  surface-feeding  ducks;  methods  and 
conditions  for  planting.  4.  The  care  of  adult  birds, 
with  formulae  and  regulations  for  feeding.  5.  The 
care  and  feeding  of  the  young.  6.  The  manage- 
ment and  feeding  of  deer. 

The  Commercial  Side  of  Breeding  Game  in  Cap- 
tivity.— The  private  game  preserve  and  bird  sanc- 
tuary under  reasonable  regulations  should  be 
encouraged  in  every  way  by  the  states  for  the 
following  reasons : 

1.  To  supplement  the  work  now  being  done  by 
many  of  the  states  and  to  create  a  large  overflow  for 
the  benefit  of  the  people  at  large. 


PRIVATE  GAME  PRESERVES  221 

2.  To  increase  the  insectivorous  birds,  whose 
economic  value  has  been  so  convincingly  set  forth 
by  Mr.  E.  H.  Forbush  in  his  book,  "Useful  Birds 
and  Their  Protection." 

3.  To  increase  the  supply  of  meat  and  thus 
bring  it  within  the  reach  of  more  people.    The  com- 
parative prices  of  game  between  this  country  and 
England  during  the  last  century  reveal  the  rapid- 
ity with  which  our  wild  life  is  vanishing. 

EXCERPT   FROM   "THE   GAME   MARKET   OF    TO-DAY/'    HENRY 
OLDYS,  UNITED  STATES  DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE, 

1910 

New  York,         New  York,  London, 

1763  1910  1910 

Partridge/ each,  $.24          $1.75     -2.00  $.16-.25 

Grouse,2   each,  .30  1.50  .24-.36 

Mallard,  each,  .25  .62%  .24-.36 

Teal,  each,  .12  .37%-  .50  .16-.24 

Snipe,  per  dozen,  .30  2.00     -3.00  .08-.16 

Quail,  per  dozen,  3.00     -4.50 

Ring-necked  pheasant,  New  York,  1913,  wholesale  $4  to  $4.50 

per  pair. 

Ring-necked  pheasant,  London,  1913,  wholesale  $1  per  pair. 
1653— Whole  deer  $1.20. 
1765 — Whole  deer   17.50   (maximum  price). 
1910 — Whole  deer  43.73    (maximum  price  wholesale). 

4.  To  add  interest  to  the  reclamation  and  re- 
forestation  of   practically  worthless   acres   which 

1  Probably  means  ruffed  grouse  in  New  York. 

2  Heath-hen  in  New  York  markets  in  1T63 ;  in  1910  this  would  be 
ruffed  grouse. 


222  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

should  be  exempt  from  taxation  while  being 
improved,  under  the  German  system  of  taxing  the 
crop  after  the  improvements  have  been  completed 
and  lumbering  begins. 

In  short,  the  salvation  of  our  wild  life  that  is  so 
rapidly  vanishing  can  only  be  accomplished  by  the 
game  farm  and  the  game  refuge,  state  and  private ; 
and  everyone  owning  even  a  small  tract  of  semi- 
wild  land  should  help  the  cause  of  conservation. 

Let  each  one  do  his  share  to  restore  the  balance 
which  man  has  so  rudely  and  persistently  upset. 
Man  ruthlessly  destroyed  the  larger  carnivora  until 
the  smaller  species,  less  useful  and  less  dangerous 
to  him,  increased  abnormally,  thereby  destroying 
the  bird  life  so  essential  in  keeping  in  check  the 
insect  life.  If  we  reduce  the  number  of  small  car- 
nivora to  normal,  the  bird  life  will  quickly  respond, 
the  injurious  insect  life  will  promptly  decrease  and 
useful  vegetation  will  increase  correspondingly. 

Let  the  waste  areas  be  peopled  with  the  animal 
and  bird  life  of  a  hundred  years  ago.  Let  the 
forests,  now  still,  echo  with  the  whistle  of  the  deer 
and  the  bugle  of  the  elk,  our  waterways  answer  to 
the  honk  of  the  wild  goose,  and  our  farms  will 
resound  to  the  chorus  of  myriads  of  song-birds! 
Then,  when  the  "red  gods  call,"  we  can  go;  and  we 
shall  be  a  stronger,  hardier,  better  race  through  our 
appreciation  and  enjoyment  of  the  wild  life  we  have 
helped  to  reinstate. 


A  BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  MORE   RECENT  WORKS  ON 

WILD  BIRDS,  WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE  TO 

GAME  PRESERVES  AND  THE  PROTECTION 

AND   PROPAGATION   OF   GAME 

BY  FREDERIC  C.  WALCOTT 


In  a  general  way  I  have  tried  in  compiling  this  bibliography 
to  include  only  the  more  recent  works,  and  works  that  are  not 
restricted  in  the  ground  they  cover  to  any  small  section  of 
territory  or  limited  number  of  species.  Where  exception  has 
been  made  to  these  two  principles,  I  have  felt  that  there  was 
justification. 

The  books  are  classified  by  countries.  Capital  letters  fol- 
lowing certain  titles  indicate  call  number  of  books  at  New 
York  Public  Library. 

THE  WORLD 

Four  Centuries  of  Legislation  on  Birds.  W.  G.  Clarke.  Anti- 
quary, London,  1909.  C.  A. 

ENGLAND 

A  Gamekeeper's  Note  Book.  Owen  Jones  and  Marcus  Wood- 
ward. E.  Arnold,  London,  1910.  M.  Y.  O. 

Birds  and  the  Plumage  Trade.  S.  L.  Bensusan.  Nineteenth 
Century,  London,  1913.  D.  A. 

The  Migration  of  Birds.  T.  A.  Coward.  University  Press, 
Cambridge,  1912.  Q.  M.  E. 


224  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

Aviaries   and  Aviary   Life.      Wesley    T.    Page.      The   Avian 

Press,  Ashbourne,  1912. 
A  History  of  Fowling.     H.  A.  MacPherson.     David  Douglas, 

Edinburgh,  1897. 
The  Solution  of  the  Mystery  of  Bird  Flight.     George  L.  O. 

Davidson.     Nineteenth  Century  and  After,  London,  1912. 

D.  A. 
Lost    and    Vanishing    Birds.       C.    Dixon.       J.     MacQueen, 

London,  1898.    Q.  M.  D. 
The  Complete  Wildfowler.     Stanley  Duncan  and  G.  Thorne. 

G.  Richards,  Ltd.,  London,  1912.     M.  Y.  T. 
Studies  in  Bird  Migration.     Wm.   Eagle  Clarke.     Gurney  & 

Jackson,  London,  1912.     Q.  M.  E. 
The   Flight   of   Birds.      F.   W.    Headley.      Witherby   &   Co., 

London,  1912.     Q.  M.  D. 
The  Brent  Valley  Bird  Sanctuary.     W.  M.  Webb.     Selborne 

Society,  Brent  Valley,  England,  1911.    Q.  M.  D. 
British  Diving  Ducks.     J.  G.  Millais.     Longmans,  Green  & 

Co.,  New  York,  1913. 
Natural  History  of  the  British  Surface-Feeding  Ducks.     J.  G. 

Millais.     Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  1902. 
The  Natural  History  of  British  Game  Birds.     J.  G.  Millais. 

Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  1909. 
The  Mammals  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland.     J.  G.  Millais. 

Longmans,  Green  &  Co.,  1904. 

NORTH  AMERICA 

The  American  Natural  History.     W.  T.  Hornaday.     Fireside 

Edition,  1914.     Charles  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York. 
Color    Key    to    North    American    Birds.      F.    M.    Chapman. 

American  Museum  Natural  History,  New  York,  1903. 
Key  to  North  American  Birds.     Elliott  Coues.     Dana  Estes  & 

Co.,  Boston,  1903. 
The   Bird.      C.   William   Beebe.      Henry   Holt   &   Co.,    New 

York,  1906. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  225 

Distribution  and  Migration  of  North  American  Shorebirds. 
Wells  W.  Cooke.  Government  Printing  Office,  Washing- 
ton, 1912.  Q.  G.  S. 

Chronology  and  Index  of  the  More  Important  Events  in 
American  Game  Protection,  1776-1911.  T.  S.  Palmer. 
Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  1912.  Q.  G.  S. 

North  American  Birds  Eggs.  C.  S.  Reed.  Many  illustrations. 
1904. 

EASTERN  NORTH  AMERICA 

Handbook  of  Birds  of  Eastern  North  America.  F.  M.  Chap- 
man. D.  Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York,  1895.  Q.  M.  Q. 

GREENLAND 

Die  Vogel  der  Arktik.  Band  IV,  Lieferung  1,  pp.  81-288. 
Gustav  Fischer,  Jena,  1904.  A  detailed  synopsis  of 
Arctic  bird  life. 

CANADA — General 

Catalogue  of  Canadian  Birds,  giving  their  nesting  habits. 
J.  and  J.  M.  Macoun.  Government  Printing  Bureau, 
Ottawa,  1909. 

CANADA — Provinces 

Labrador. — Birds  of  Labrador.  C.  M.  Townsend  and  G.  M. 
Allen.  Proceedings^  Boston  Society  of  Natural  History, 
XXXIII,  pp.  277-428.  1907. 

Manitoba. — Fauna  of  Manitoba.  E.  T.  Seton.  British  Asso- 
ciation Handbook,  Winnipeg,  1909. 

Ontario. — Check  List  of  the  Birds  of  Ontario.  Warwick,  Beas 
&  Rutter,  Toronto,  1900. 

UNITED  STATES — General 

The  Destruction  of  our  Birds  and  Mammals.  W.  T.  Horna- 
day.  New  York  Zoological  Society,  1898. 


226  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

Migratory    Movements    of    Birds    in    Relation    to    Weather. 

W.  W.  Cooke.     Government  Printing  Office,  Washington, 

1911.     Q.  M.  D. 
Economic  Value  of  Predaceous  Birds  and  Mammals.     A.  C. 

Fisher.     Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  1909. 

V.  P.  E. 
American    Game    Bird    Shooting.       George    Bird    Grinnell. 

Forest   and   Stream    Publishing   Co.,    New   York,    1910. 

M.  Y.  T. 
Birds   of  Town  and  Country.     H.   W.   Henshaw.      National 

Geographic      Magazine,     Washington,      D.      C.,      1914. 

K.  A.  A. 
The   Policeman   of   the   Air:   An   Account  of   the   Biological 

Survey  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture. 

H.  W.  Henshaw.    National  Geographic  Magazine,  vol.  19, 

pp.  29-118,  Washington,  1909. 
Our   Vanishing  Wild   Life.     W.   T.   Hornaday.      New   York 

Zoological    Society    and    Charles    Scribner's    Sons,    New 

York,  1913.    M.  Y.  D. 
Game  Bird  Enemies.     D.  W.  Huntington.     Independent,  vol. 

64,  p.  500,  New  York,  1908.     D.  A. 
The  Sport  of  Bird  Study.     H.  K.  Job.     Outing  Press,  New 

York,  1908. 
Birds  as  Weed  Destroyers.     S.  D.  Judd.     Year  Book,  United 

States  Department  of  Agriculture,  1898. 
Encouraging  Birds  Around  the   Home.      Frederick   H.   Ken- 

nard.     National  Geographic  Magazine,  vol.  25,  pp.  315- 

344,  Washington,  1914. 
Raising  Deer  and  Other  Large  Game  Animals  in  the  United 

States.     David  E.  Lantz.     United  States  Department  of 

Agriculture,  Washington,  1910. 
Five  Important  Wild  Duck  Foods.     W.  L.  McAtee.     United 

States  Department  of  Agriculture,  1914. 
Our  Vanishing  Shorebirds.     W.   L.   McAtee.      United  States 

Biological  Survey,  Circular  79.    Q.  G.  S. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  227 

Plants   Useful  to  Attract  Birds   and  Protect   Fruit.     W.   L. 

McAtee.    Year  Book,  United  States  Department  of  Agri- 
culture, 1909.     Q.  E.  I. 
The  Game  Market  of  To-day.     Henry  Oldys.     Government 

Printing  Office,  Washington,  1911.     V.  T.  B. 
Directory  of  Officials  and  Organizations  concerned  with  the 

Protection  of  Birds  and  Game.     United  States  Bureau  of 

Biological  Survey,  1913.    Q.  M.  I. 
Importation  of  Game  Birds  and  Geese  for  Propagation.    T.  S. 

Palmer  and  Henry  Oldys.     United  States  Department  of 

Agriculture,  Washington,  1904. 
Methods  of  Attracting  Birds.    Gilbert  H.  Trafton.    Houghton 

Mifflin  Co.,  Boston,  1910.    Q.  M.  I. 
National  Reservations  for  the  Protection  of  Wild  Life.     T.  S. 

Palmer.     Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  1912. 

Q.  G.  S. 
Private  Game  Preserves  and  Their  Future  in  the  United  States. 

T.  S.  Palmer.     Government  Printing  Office,  Washington, 

1910.     Q.  G.  S. 
Progress  of  Game  Protection.     T.  S.  Palmer.     United  States 

Biological  Survey,  1910.     Q.  G.  S. 
Revealing  and  Concealing  Coloration  in  Birds  andx  Mammals. 

Theodore  Roosevelt.    American  Museum  Natural  History, 

New  York,  1911.     P.  Q.  A. 
How   to    Destroy    Rats.      David    E.    Lantz.      United    States 

Department  of  Agriculture,  Bulletin  No.  369,  September 

3,  1909. 

Birds  That  Hunt  and  Are  Hunted.   Neltje  Blanchan.   Double- 
day,  Page  &  Co.,  New  York. 
Among  the  Water  Fowl.     H.  K.  Job. 
Wild  Ducks.     Capt.  W.  C.  Oates. 
Fox  Trapping.     A.  R.  Harding. 
Ornamental  Water  Fowl.     Hon.  Rose  Hubbard. 
Saving  the  Ducks  and  Geese.     Wells  W.   Cooke.     National 

Geographic  Magazine,  March,  1913. 


228  WILD  LIFE  CONSERVATION 

UNITED  STATES — Sections 

Mississippi  Valley. — Report  on  Bird  Migration  in  the  Missis- 
sippi Valley  in  the  Years  1884  and  1885.  W.  W.  Cooke. 
Bulletin  No.  2,  Division  Economic  Ornithology,  United 
States  Biological  Survey,  Washington. 

New  England. — History  of  the  Game  Birds,  Wild-fowl  and 
Shore  Birds  of  Massachusetts  and  Adjacent  States,  with 
Observations  on  Their  Recent  Decrease,  Also  Means  for 
Conserving  Those  Still  in  Existence.  E.  H.  Forbush. 
Massachusetts  Board  of  Agriculture,  Boston,  1912. 

Pacific  Coast. — Game  Birds  and  Game  Fishes  of  the  Pacific 
Coast.  H.  T.  Payne.  Newspaper  Publishing  Co.,  Los 
Angeles,  Calif.,  1913.  Q.  M.  D. 

Southeast. — Birds  Known  to  Eat  the  Boll  Weevil.  Vernon 
Bailey.  Government  Printing  Office,  Washington,  1905. 
Q.  G.  S. 

MISCELLANEOUS  STATES 

Alaska. — National  Bird  and  Mammal  Reservations  in  Alaska 
in  Charge  of  the  United  States  Department  of  Agriculture. 
Circular  71.  Washington,  1910.  Q.  G.  S. 

Colorado. — The  Practical  Value  of  Birds.  Junius  Henderson. 
University  of  Colorado,  University  Extension,  Division 
Natural  History,  Series  No.  1,  Boulder,  Colo.,  1913. 
P.  Q.  A. 

Massachusetts. — Special  Report  on  Decrease  of  Certain  Birds 
and  Its  Causes,  with  Suggestions  for  Bird  Protection. 
E.  H.  Forbush.  Massachusetts  State  Board  of  Agricul- 
ture, Boston,  1908. 

Useful  Birds  and  Their  Protection,  1907.    E.  H.  Forbush. 

New  York. — The  Economic  Preservation  of  Birds.  S.  L. 
Bensusan.  Contemporary  Review,  New  York,  1914. 
D.  A. 


BIBLIOGRAPHY  229 

The  Economic  Value  of  Birds  to  the  State.     F.  M.  Chapman. 

New   York   State   Forest,   Fish   and   Game    Commission, 

Albany,  1903.     Q.  M.  I. 
Birds  of  New  York.     Elon  Howard  Eaton.     New  York  State 

Education  Department,  Albany,  1910. 
Birds  in  Relation  to  Agriculture.     F.  H.  Hall.     New  York 

State  Agricultural  Department,  Circular  56.     J.  B.  Lyon 

&  Co.,  Albany,  1912.     V.  P.  Z. 

Ohio. — Effect  on  Birds  of  Establishment  of  Park  and  Reser- 
voirs at  Youngstown,  Ohio.  George  L.  Fordyce.  Wilson 

Bulletin,  Chicago,  1914.     Q.  M.  A. 
Oregon. — Some  Common  Birds  of  Oregon  with  Notes  as  to 

Their  Economic  Relation  to  Man.     W.  L.  Finley.     N.  S. 

Duniway,  Salem,  1908.     Q.  M.  Q. 
Pennsylvania. — Recommendations   as   to   Trapping   and   Care 

of  Quail.    Use  of  Poison  for  Vermin  and  Crows.     Joseph 

Kalbfus.     Harrisburg  Publishing  Co.,  Harrisburg,  Pa., 

1908.    Q.  M.  I. 
Wisconsin. — Anon  the  Reasons  for  Bird  Migration :  A  Favorite 

Food  Theory.    A.  C.  Burrill.    Bulletin  Wisconsin  Natural 

History  Society,  Milwaukee,  1912.    P.  Q.  A. 

GERMANY 

Sanctuaries  for  Birds  on  German  Coasts.  Selborne  Magazine, 
vol.  24,  pp.  45-49,  London,  1913.  M.  S.  Y. 

How  to  Attract  and  Protect  Wild  Birds.  Martin  Hiesemann. 
Witherby  &  Co.,  London,  1911. 


INDEX 

Animals  mentioned  in  Text: 

Antelope  38,  86,  87,  114,  115,  142,  143,  152,  166,  204 

Bear 4,  38,  86,  87,  115,  116,  117,  148,  194 

punished  for  stealing   117 

Black  11,  39,  76,  116,  144 

Grizzly 11,  39,  114,  116,  117,  144-146,  148,  154 

Beaver 76,  114,  194,  207 

Bison,  see  Buffalo. 

Buck,  Indian  black   18 

Buffalo  or  Bison, 

6,  8,  10,  11,  38,  40,  76,  77,  85,  86,  87,  141,  204,  207 

Caribou    8,    89 

Cougar,  see  Mountain  Lion. 

Coyote   143,  148,  152 

Deer,  6,  86,  87,  89,  90,  102-115,  133,  142,  143,  144,  155,  194, 

197,  198,  202,  204,  205,  207,  209,  215,  220,  221,  222 

damage  done  by  106,  107 

stocking  with 105,  106,  120,  121 

value  of  as  food 102-113 

David's  of  Manchuria  11 

Mule  15,  38,  40,  115,  207 

Roe     205 

White-tailed, 

11,  33,  76,  78,  86,  87,  105-108,  113,  132,  204,  208,  217,  218 
Elk,  6,  10,  11,  39,  76,  87,  102,  104,  114,  115,  136,  137,  144,  155, 

197,  205,  222 

surplus  of  females  136 

Fox 3,  4,  22,  118,  199,  220 

Red 118,  147,  157 

Franklin  spermophiles    143 

Fruit-bat  or  Flying  fox  100,  101 

Fur  seal    171 

Hare   205,  215 

Lynx 3,  4,  22,  76,  146,  220 


232  INDEX 

Mink     146 

Mongoose,  a  menace  100,  101,  156,  158-160 

Moose 38,  39,  89,  91,  108,  114,  166 

Mountain  Goat 39,  152,  166 

Mountain  Lion  or  Puma  or  Cougar,  11,  39,  76,  143,  148,  152-155 

Mountain  Sheep 15,  38,  39,  40,  41,  114,  115,  144,  146,  152 

Opossum    146 

Otter  76,  194 

Prairie-dog     143 

Puma,  see  Mountain  Lion. 

Rabbit 3,  100,  114,  131,  146,  155-157,  194,  197,  215 

Raccoon     146 

Sable    194 

Sea-lion,  mistakenly  treated  as  a  pest 125-127 

Sheep,  Wild   215 

Skunk   3,  146,  194,  220 

Squirrel,  Gray   114,  115,  134 

Red     134,  139,  220 

Stoat   156,  214 

Wapiti    204,  207 

Weasel  146,  147,  156,  214,  220 

Wild   boar    204 

Wolf,  Gray  or  "Timber"  . .  .3,  11,  22,  40,  76,  140-143,  148,  152-155 

Wolverine    11,   155 

Birds  mentioned  in  Text: 

Auk,  Great    12 

Avocet  64,  67,  68 

Bittern     138 

Blackbird  32,  57,  58,  129 

Crow     56 

Bluebird    58,    158 

Bobolink 17,  134,  135,  150,  185,  194 

Bob-white,  see  Quail. 

Brant      95 

Bunting 58 

Bush-tit     58 

Cardinal    58 

Catbird    54 

Chickadees   58,  60,  118,  213 


INDEX  233 

Condor     140 

Cormorant,  Pallas    12 

Crane     15 

Indian   saras 18 

Sandhill     15 

Whooping    11,   15 

Creepers    58,    60 

Crow    129-131,  220 

Curlew    63-65 

Eskimo    12,  65,  70 

Long-billed     6T 

Dodo   75,  166 

Dove    17,  100 

Dowitcher    63-65,   67 

Duck,  6,  21,  27,  32,  33,  55,  87,  90,  95,  113,  Ii5,  129,  130,  151, 

209,  216,  220 

Black   33,  197,  218 

Labrador     12 

Mallard  33,  197,  198,  206,  209,  215-221 

Wood    27,  209,  215,  217 

Eagle    131,   140 

Golden     152 

Egret   22,  23,  55 

rookery  robbed   189 

Flamingo   22,  23 

Fly-catchers    57,  58 

Goatsucker    55,  57 

Godwit     67 

Goldfinch 150 

Goose 6,  21,  33,  87,  95,  216,  222 

Canada   197,  198,  210,  217-219 

Hutchins   218 

Snow    218 

Wing-tipped  cackling   218 

Goshawk,   American    150 

Grackle,   Purple    129 

Grosbeak     58 

Rose-breasted    . .  4 


234  INDEX 

Grouse,  6,  12-16,  55,  70,  71,  75-78,  94,  96-99,  101,  113,  119, 

143,  147,  151,  159,  206,  207,  220,  221 

Eastern   pinnated,    or    Heath-hen,    the   eastern    Prairie- 
Chicken,  nearly  extinct.     Lesson  involved,  11-15,  32, 

75-78,  87,  96,  101,  147,  151,  159,  206,  207,  220,  221 
Eastern  ruffed,  miscalled  "pheasant,"  78,  79,  96,  115,  118, 

149,  151,  194,  205,  207,  209,  219,  221 

Indian  sand   18 

Sage   15,  77,  96 

Sharp-tailed    15,   77 

Gull  22,  23 

Hawk 3,  5,  22,  55,  79-82,  123,  131,  140,  153,  199 

Chicken    81 

Cooper's    149,  150,  220 

Duck,  or  Peregrine  Falcon  150 

Pigeon    148,   150 

Red-shouldered    81 

Red-tailed     81 

Sharp-shinned    148,   220 

Sparrow  148,  150 

Heath-hen,  or  eastern  Prairie-Chicken,  see  Grouse,  Eastern 
Pinnated. 

Heron   22,  23,  55,  137,  138 

Ibis  22,  23,  55 

Jay    58,  214 

Blue,  destroyer  of  brown-tail  moth  128,  129 

Kingbird   58 

Kingfisher     138 

Kinglet    58 

Macaw,  Cuban  tricolor  12 

Gosse's     12 

Purple  Guadaloupe   12 

Martin 17,  57,  61,  62 

Purple    158 

Meadow-Lark   56,  57 

Nighthawk   17,  57,  61 

Nuthatches    58,   60,   118 


INDEX  235 

Oriole   57,  58 

Baltimore    56 

Owls   3,  5,  22,  79-82,  131 

Barn     80 

Barred    151,   152 

Great  Horned  151,  152,  220 

Long-eared    81,  151 

Saw-whet     152 

Screech     152 

Short-eared   81,  151 

Parrakeet,  Carolina    11,   12,  76 

Partridges   215,  221 

European  gray   202 

Hungarian,  a  failure 14,  98,  101,  119,  197 

Red-legged     202 

Peacock     215 

Pelican    138 

Phalaropes    64,   67 

"Pheasant,"  see  Grouse,  Eastern  Ruffed. 

Pheasant  raising   33,  99,  219 

Pheasant 78,  149,  206,  209,  211,  215,  219,  220 

English    101,  146,  202 

Golden 197 

Japanese   101 

Ring-necked 98,  197,  198,  206,  207,  209,  217,  219,  221 

Silver    197 

Phoebe  bird    54 

Pigeon  149,  151,  215 

Passenger   11,  12,  76 

Plover   32,  63-68 

Black-bellied   or  beetle-head    64 

Black-breasted    66 

Golden    65,   66,   70 

Killdeer   57,  63,  67,  68 

Mountain     67 

Semi-palmated    67 

Upland   11,  67,  68 

Prairie-chicken  or  Heath-hen,  see  Grouse,  Eastern  Pinnated. 


236  INDEX 

Ptarmigan   15,  89,  101,  151 

Quail  or  Bob-white,  14,  15,  21,  32,  55,  57,  68,  70-76,  87,  94, 
96-99,  101,  113,  114,  118,  119,  139,  143,  147,  149,  151, 
159,  165,  197,  198,  203,  207,  209,  220,  221 

Gambel's,  increasing  94,  95 

Hungarian      198 

Mexican     197 

Valley    95,    197 

Rice-bird,  see  Bobolink. 

Robin  17,  58,  128,  135,  194 

Sandpipers    64-69 

Spotted    69 

Shore-birds  15,  16,  26,  55,  62-70,  94 

Species  left  open  to  slaughter  65,  66 

Snipe  32,  63-65,  67,  69,  87,  215,  221 

Song  birds   55,  57,  114,  222 

prey  to  larger  birds    148-151 

Sparrows  57,  58,  194 

prey  to  larger  birds    150-152 

English    157 

Spoonbill    22,  23 

Starling    157,  158 

Stilt    67 

Swallows   17,  26,  55,  57,  58 

Swan    15 

Swifts   55,  150 

Teal    221 

Tern    22,   23 

Thrush   54,  128,  135,  150,  213 

Titlark     ". 57 

Towhee    58 

Tree-climbers     '. 55 

Turkey 6,  15,  76,  87,  89,  96,  97,  101,  159,  194,  197,  198,  209 

Turnstone     67 

Upland  Game-birds 70-79,  94-99,  101,  147,  151 

Vireos   54,  150 

Warblers    54,  55,   58 

Water-fowl    .  ..83,  95 


INDEX  237 

Woodcock  63-65,  67-69,  87,  215 

Woodpeckers  5,  26,  58-61,  118,  149,  158 

Downy     60 

Golden-winged     158 

Hairy     60 

Pileated    11,  76 

Wren     57 

Yellow-legs    65,  66,  67 

Abundance  of  wild  life  3,  7,  166,  221 

Animal  pests, 

80-82,  123,  131-134,  140,  143,  144,  146-148,  152-160,  220,  222 
treatment  of, 

124,  125,  127,  128,  132-134,  142-147,  153-155,  160,  222 

Balance  of  Animate  Nature  3-8,  82,  222 

Bayne  law 33,  42,  180,  206 

Bird  pests 80,  82,  139,  140,  148-153,  157,  158 

Birds  of  special  value  as  destroyers  of  insects  55 

Destroyers  of  brown-tail  moth   129 

Destroyers  of  codling-moth   57,  58 

Destroyers  of  cotton-boll  weevil 56,  57,  62 

Martins  and  swallows   61,  62 

Shore-birds     62-70 

Tree-climbers     58-61 

Upland   game-birds    70-79 

California's  game  law  excellent  169 

Upheld  by  citizens  and  University  37,  171 

Causes  of  destruction  of  wild  life 6,  110,  111,  122,  211,  222 

Cherry  trees  planted  for  birds   130 

Commercial  aspect  of  breeding  game, 

103-108,  111,  202,  206,  209,  216,  219,  220,  221 

Contempt  for  law    188-191 

Damage  to  property  by  beasts  or  birds  106,  107,  124,  128-134 

Dangers  in  game-breeding   199,  213 

Dependence  upon  those  who  do  not  kill  for  helping  the  cause, 

35,  36,  111,  164,  165,  167-180,  182-185,  191-194 


238  INDEX 

Destructive  species  of  birds  80-82,  148-153,  220 

treatment   of    149-153 

Duty  toward  wild  life,  v,  vi,  1-3,  36-38,  42,  43,  98,  161-168,  170- 

172,  183-185,  191-193,  201,  211,  212 
Economic  value  of  wild  life,  1,  2,  7,  17,  44-47,  53-62,  64-68,  71-74, 

79-83,  85,  86,  97,  128-131,  194,  209,  211,  221,  222 
Enemies  of  wild  life,  33,  37,  41,  42,  47,  61,  62,  66,  84,  94,  168-170, 

178-180,  182,  183,  185,  188-193,  211,  213 
Evidence  of  damage  to  be  insisted  upon, 

125,  127,  128,  139,  140,  148,  160 

Extermination  of  species  in  wild  state  11,  12,  23,  92 

absolute  11,  12,  23,  38,  41,  42,  65,  161 

threatened   16,  76,  77,  78 

Extinction,  local 11,  16,  62,  63,  75-78,  105,  161 

practical  11,  64-66,  76,  98,  110 

Feather  millinery  trade  .  .22-24,  33-35,  43,  137,  139,  140,  170,  173,  180 
Federal  Migratory  Bird  (McLean- Weeks)  law, 

16,  24-31,  44-46,  61,  62,  65,  70,  78,  95,  179,  180,  209 

declared    unconstitutional 29-31 

supported  in  the  South   28,  29 

Fight  to  save  wild  life  by  University  of  California  37,  171 

Fish  destruction 137,  138 

"Fool  hawk  law,"  The 5,  81,  82,  153 

Forests   102,  103 

Conservation  of 101,  129,  166,  174,  175,  187,  188,  201 

Dangers  to   45-51,  160,  175 

Raising  of  deer  in  102-105 

Game-birds    87,  88 

Laws  protecting 25,  26,  44,  74 

Game  laws 89 

Enforcement  of  109,  167 

ineffectual 20-23,  40,  41,  75,  76,  110,  167-169,  188,  189 

Game  protection,  Reasons  advanced  against 69,  74,  119,  120,  139 

Game,  Sale  of 24,  31-33,  75,  95-97,  168,  169,  172,  206,  219 

Hobhouse  bill  in  England  34 

Hunting  licenses   19,  20,  108,  192 

Inbreeding    120-122 

Insect  pests 2-5,  45-61,  66-68,  73,  81 


INDEX  239 

Insectivorous   birds,  economic  value   of,   see   economic  value  of 
wild  life. 

destruction  of 16,  46 

laws  protecting   25,  26,  44,  65 

methods  of  preventing  damage  by   130,  131 

International  treaty  with  Canada 27 

Introduction  of  foreign  species  of  birds  and  animals, 

98-101,  120,  121,  131,  155-159 

Iowa  game  warden's  mistake 74,  99 

Italians  and  negroes  destructive  of  bird  life,  16,  46,  61,  134,  194,  211 

Lacey  bird   law    180 

Lambay,  Island  of,  stocked  with  deer 121 

Legitimate  sport  and  use  of  game, 

90-92,  95,  103,  104,  106-108,  155,  206,  219,  221 

Limit  to  possibilities  of  restocking 9,  13-15,  188 

Long  close  seasons  and  immunity  from  slaughter  indispensable, 

99,  117,  118,  137,  170 

Losses  due  to  insects  49-53,  194,  209 

Maine,  Conservation  of  deer  and  moose  in 108,  109 

Manual  of  instruction  needed   220 

Market  hunters  21,  22,  32,  44,  77,  88,  97,  98,  172 

Record  kept  by  a  professional   32 

Mauritius,  Island  of 75,  166 

McLean- Weeks  law,  see  Federal  Migratory  Bird  law. 

Measures   needed   for  preserving  species,    13-15,  38,  88,   92-101, 

111,  112,  117-119,  122-124,  165,  169,  170,  198,  211,  212,  220-222 

Campaigning  for,  and  legal  steps 173-180,  186 

Funds  needed  for 36,  38,  177,  180-187 

Immediate  action  imperative 167,  169,  175,  186,  188 

National  Forests  made  national  game  preserves  179,  193 

National  Forests,  Hunting  permitted  in  40-43,  179,  193 

New  York's  solution  of  the  deer  problem 132,  133 

State  law  excellent   96,  133,  219 

New  Zealand  stocked  with  deer 120,  121 

Ohio  and  other  states  nearly  denuded  of  wild  life  .  .11,  15,  74-77,  164 

Species  of  birds  exterminated  in   76 

Permanent  Wild  Life  Protection  Fund   .  ..209 


240  INDEX 

Practicability  of  saving  existing  remnants  of  wild  life, 

23,  38,  42,  43,  83,  98,  99,  101,  111-114,  117,  119,  120,  122,  170 
Preserves,  established,  12,  23,  24,  38-40,  85,  97,  115-117,  120,  121, 

167,  175,  181,  189,  197,  198,  209,  210 

Marsh  Island,  La 181 

Rockefeller   Foundation   Purchase    210 

especially  needed 70,  199-201,  207,  222 

Private   198,  201-213,  217-219 

Author's     217-219 

How  to  establish   214,  215,  220 

Response  of  wild  life  to  protection, 

99,  101,  104-106,  113-117,  121,  213,  216,  217 
Reward  of  efforts  to  save  wild  life,  23,  24,  32-37,  65,  70,  85,  96, 

117,  170,  171,  173,  176,  179-182,  185,  186,  197,  198,  217-220 

Rodents,  etc.,  destroyed  by  birds  5,  79-82,  123,  131,  194 

Russian  mulberry  trees  planted  for  birds 130,  131 

Slaughter  for  food  and  commercial  purposes,  legalized  but  un- 
warrantable, 9,  10,  15-23,  32,  41,  42,  44,  57,  61,  62,  66,  69, 
74-80,  85-89,  94,  96-98,  109,  110,  119,  135,  161-164,  179, 
191,  192 

illegal  but  permitted   188,  189 

Sources  of  information  172,  220,  223-229 

States  and  areas  remiss  in  treatment  of  wild  life, 

15,  20,  27,  28,  41,  42,  74-80,  96,  164,  189 

Stomachs  of  birds  examined  67,  149 

sea-lions    examined    127 

Trout     205 

Vermin   214,  215,  220 

Vermont's  solution  of  the  deer  problem 105-107,  133 

Vertebrate  life,  Species  of,  exterminated 11,  12,  23,  65 

Wastefulness  in  treatment  of  bird  question 4,  96,  97 

Characteristic  of  American  spirit   18,  187 

Weapons  and  automobiles  in  hunting 15,  21,  24,  74,  76 

Weeds  kept  down  by  birds  71-73,  97,  135,  194 


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